The wonderful singer

There once was a singer who put everybody to sleep when he sang. As soon as he started singing, his audience would fall asleep for an hour or two. Then they would wake up when the power of his singing had worn off.

Some said that he was such an excellent singer that he was putting everyone’s soul to sleep. Others said that he was such a horrible singer that people went to sleep rather than listen to him — they spontaneously invoked the goddess of sleep so that they could fall asleep. So there were two schools of thought about the singer. One deeply appreciated his musical talent; the other did not appreciate him at all. But they all went to hear him sing.

One day, two burglars came to the singer and said, “You are such a great singer. We want to hire you. If we give you a very large amount of money, will you be able to sing at a particular place?”

The singer said, “Of course! As long as I get the money, I will sing. I don’t trust you two, but if you give me the money beforehand, then I will go wherever you want me to.”

The two burglars gave the singer a very large amount of money and then asked him to follow them. They brought him in front of a small bank and asked him to sing there. It was early evening, and there was only one guard watching this bank. As soon as the singer started singing, immediately the guard fell asleep. Then the two burglars entered into the bank and began collecting all the money.

After some time the singer stopped singing, because the guard was fast asleep. He said, “There is nobody to listen. This man doesn’t care for my music.”

For a long time the singer stood waiting for the two burglars to come out of the bank. Finally he went inside and told them, “You have already given me my money. Now I am going away.”

The burglars said, “Yes, you can go away now,” and they thanked him profusely.

As the singer was about to leave, all of a sudden he got the inspiration to start singing. Immediately both of the burglars fell asleep. In the meantime the guard who was outside woke up since he was not in earshot of the singing.

When the guard saw the singer coming out of the bank, he said, “What were you doing inside the bank? What’s going on in there?”

The singer said, “I don’t know,” and he ran away.

When the guard went inside, he found the two burglars sleeping and he caught them.