The Gypsy and the Farmer

Part of the fun of keeping a blog is putting little bits of oneself out there, and today I’m sharing one of my Dad’s favorite Gypsy jokes — without this, it may be lost to the mists of time. I wonder if they still tell these in Hungary.

All countries and nationalities have a history of denigrating “the Other,” and I’ll not get into THAT. But into most all of these jokes, one could insert any particular ethnic or racial slur. Heck, you may have even heard this one with another group as the target of the humor. A co-worker of my wife (a former Executive Director at a well-known Tulsa nonprofit who’ll remain nameless) once said to her that any Blonde joke could be replaced by an inappropriate expletive describing a Negro, and it would suddenly be perceived as racist humor.

With that preamble…

A farmer was working his field and a gypsy came by looking for day work. It was the custom in those days for a farmer to provide food for any hired man to ensure a good day’s labor.

They ate breakfast, and when that was done and they were getting ready to head out to the field, the gypsy said: “You know…if we go ahead and have lunch now, we won’t have to stop and come back to the house and interrupt the work.”

The farmer and his wife agreed, and she got the lunch meal prepared in short order, which they ate. Following lunch, the gypsy said: “You know…if we go ahead and have dinner now, I won’t have to come all the way back to your house, but I can just go home after the day is done.”

The farmer and his wife reluctantly agreed, she set out dinner.

When the dinner was done, and everyone was stuffed, the farmer started to get up and go out to the field. The gypsy said: “After dinner, I don’t work for anyone.”

Spelling it out: the gypsy just swindled the farmer out of 3 meals. In case you didn’t get it.

Maybe it loses something in translation…

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