Ingenuity

The late Clarence W. Cranford often told the story of a wife’s correspondence with her husband who was serving time in prison for armed robbery. “When is the best time to plant the potatoes?” she asked. The husband wrote back, “Don’t dig in the potato patch now. That’s where I hid all my guns.” The prison mail was censored, of course, and soon the potato patch in question was being dug up by a whole squad of policemen. But there were no guns to be found. Again, the wife wrote to her husband in prison. “They’ve dug up the whole potato patch,” she complained. Whereupon, the crafty husband wrote back, “The patch is ready. You can plant the potatoes now.”