G'morning Vern, 

 VH> The way I heard it, the guy was going to jump off...
 VH> "A little old to be believing in fairy godmothers, aren't you?" :-)

Well, Patrick was recovering in the park and at his wit's end, 
desparate to pay his tabs at the pubs - and him with no prospect 
of employment at all, at all.

He screwed his face up with pain as the happy cries of playing 
children penetrated his travelling headache ... and a beautiful 
idea exploded in his long-suffering head.  A simple kidnapping 
would extract him from the merde with a goodly ransom.

Minutes later he'd whipped a small red-haired child into the 
bushes, pinned a note to the jacket which said  "I've kidnapped 
your child !  Leave 1,000 euros behind the statue or it'll be the 
worse for you !  The Irishman."

And next morning was beautiful, for he collected the 1,000 and 
ignored the hurtful note that said... "I don't believe you could 
do this terrible thing to a fellow Irishman !"

:-|
                 
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