Don't Mess With Joha
4969

Joha’s favorite late afternoon activity was to sit in the coffee house and drink coffee. One day Joha went to his favorite café. He took off his jacket, placed it on the back of a chair at his favorite table, and then sat down and ordered a coffee. While he was waiting for his coffee, he decided to get up and go to the washroom to wash his hands.

 

Joha had many friends in town and a couple of them were sitting in this café on that day. They were cousins known as Big David and Little David. Both were about the same height, but Big David was rather wide and Little David was very thin. The Davids waved to Joha on his way to the washroom.

 

Big David, who was known about town as a bit of a prankster, had an idea. “Let’s play a trick on Joha and see what he will do,” he said to Little David.

 

When Joha returned to his table, he realized that his jacket was gone and that it was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Has anyone seen my jacket,” Joha inquired of the room. There was no response—barely anyone looked at him.

 

“Ahem,” Joha repeated, “I said, has anyone seen my jacket? If you took it, please return it.”

 

Still nothing.

 

“Excuse me,” said Joha, even louder this time. “If you don’t return my jacket to me, I’m going to have to do what my father did!”

 

“What did his father do,” a worried Little David whispered in his cousin’s ear.

 

Big David’s eyes were wide with fear. “I don’t know,” Big David whispered back, “maybe he beat someone up.”

 

“Or maybe Joha’s father killed someone. Hurry, give Joha back his jacket before he does something terrible to us,” urged Little David.

 

The Davids, now trembling with fear, gave the jacket back to Joha.

 

“We’re so sorry, we’re so sorry,” they kept repeating. “We were only joking around, please don’t be mad at us.”

 

“I’m not mad,” responded Joha, “I just wanted my jacket back.”

 

Feeling a little bit better and braver, Little David hesitantly said, “Joha, do you mind telling us what it was that your father did?”

 

Joha replied, “Oh, nothing much. He just went and bought a new jacket. I didn’t want to have to do that.”