Just after the last war, people were very willing to give
money to help those who had suffered from it. But not every one who collected
money was honest. The newspapers were full of stories of people who had been
cheated by men who went from house to house saying that they were collecting
for soldiers who had been seriously wounded in the war, or for people who had
lost their homes, or for some other noble cause, while all the time they were
putting the money they collected into their own pockets instead of using it for
the purposes they claimed to be collecting it for.
One day, Mr. Smith came back with another story of this
kind. He told his wife that a group of people had collected thousands for the
widow of the unknown soldier. Then someone had written to the papers about it,
and they had written articles to warn other people. Mr. Smith said that he and
his friends at the office had had good laugh about the story when the had read
in the newspaper.
“Can you imagine anyone being so stupid as to believe that
story and give money for the widow of the unknown soldiers?”, he asked his
wife.
She looked puzzled at first, but the her face brightened.
“Oh. Yes! I see now!” the answered, “Of course, the government pays the widow
of the unknown soldier?”.