You Won’t Believe This Tall Bale

Our friend “Stu” is a farmer who sold some hay bales to one of our area’s biggest cattle ranchers — which doesn’t mean much since this isn’t really cattle country, but judging by the glamorous sign on the ranch driveway, the guy thinks he’s something special. But after a few months, the rancher called to ask if he could return a few bales, having decided he’d gotten too much. People usually stock up in the fall and don’t need any later, so Stu wasn’t sure he could resell it at that point, and normally someone who bought too much hay just lives with their mistake, so it was a weird request, but Stu’s a very kind and generous man so he agreed.

After getting the bales back, he did find someone to take a few, but soon afterward that fellow called him up to say his cattle were refusing the hay! Upon inspection, it was found to consist mostly of thistles, saplings, and shrubs! Stu’s hay is carefully cultivated with alfalfa and the usual.

It seems the original purchaser had baled random weeds from some unkempt field and invented his “bought too much” tale in order to get his money back while keeping Stu’s good bales! It was like returning a box to a store with a brick in it for weight instead of the original appliance!

It was so tacky a crime we all found it more hilarious than angering. Aside from telling all his friends to be cautious of doing business with the jerk, and of course vowing to never deal with him again himself, Stu just let it slide.

A couple of months later, Stu and his wife unexpectedly ran into “Mr. & Mrs. Thistlebale” in a vacation spot in another country. Mr. Thistlebale said, “Want to go for dinner? We have to watch our image back home, but down here nobody will see.” No, Stu and his wife did not jump on the charitable offer.