Fruit Story

William walks into the meeting room. In his hands, there is a lifeless plant. He has grown nothing over the past month, and has lost all hope of becoming CEO of Dexteriors Industry at this point. McKarthy, his CEO, is hosting his last meeting today. The other eleven officers, each competing to become the next CEO, have beautiful, large ripe pears around the table.

McKarthy couldn’t help but ask William, “Where is your pear?”

Looking down at the worms wiggling in the soil, he gloomily says, “This is it, sir.”

McKarthy raises his left eyebrow in careful study. “Stand up and come here, William.”

Walking to McKarthy, he noticed everybody else chuckling around the table.

McKarthy pulls his own belt up, smirks at William, and boasts, “Gentlemen, take a good look at this.”

William’s face turns red as everybody looks and now laughs across the room.

“Take a good look at this man and his dead plant. This man is your new CEO.”

There was a pause, and then a change in atmosphere. William's face immediately lit up in surprise and confusion.

“Each of the seeds I gave you all during the beginning of this competition were duds. That’s right, they were already dead. There was no way any of you could have grown a pear with my seeds. William here is the only one who was honest enough to bring his failed experiment into this meeting, and as such is now the new CEO of Dexteriors.”

In an instant, the joke was on the other top officers.

That night, William went home and placed his lifeless plant above the fireplace. He sat in his fur recliner. For the rest of the night, he just gazed into the fire. He was savoring the moment, just sinking into his recliner.