Easy Enough
Reading edition
Some visitors who were being shown over a pauper lunatic asylum, says “Harper’s Weekly,” inquired of their guide what method was employed to discover when the inmates were sufficiently recovered to leave.
“Well,” replied he, “you see, it’s this way. We have a big trough of water, and we turns on the tap. We leave it running, and tells ’em to bail out the water with pails until they’ve emptied the trough.”
“How does that prove it?” asked one of the visitors.
“Well,” said the guide, “them as ain’t idiots turns off the tap.”