Learning The Hard Way
====


The son of a master thief asked his father to teach him the
secrets of the trade. The old thief agreed and that night
took his son to burglarize a large house. While the family
was asleep, he silently led his young apprentice into a room
that contained a clothes closet. The father told his son to
go into the closet to pick out some clothes. When he did,
his father quickly shut the door and locked him in. Then he
went back outside, knocked loudly on the front door, thereby
waking the family, and quickly slipped away before anyone
saw him.

Hours later, his son returned home, bedraggled and
exhausted. "Father," he cried angrily, "Why did you lock me
in that closet? If I hadn't been made desperate by my fear
of getting caught, I never would have escaped. It took all
my ingenuity to get out!"

The old thief smiled. "Son, you have had your first lesson
in the art of burglary."
