A guy was driving down the road and got a flat just outside the fence of an mental hospital. Muttering to himself — he was having a bad day — he started to change the tire, but nothing about it was going right. As he was changing the tire, a bunch of the inmates came over the fence to watch, which only added to his exasperation. After he got the flat off, he put all the lug nuts into the hub cap on the ground, but while he was wrestling the new tire on, he accidentally kicked the hub cap, which turned over, and all the lug nuts fell down a storm drain. Dark oaths filled his heart and mind and he began to stomp off down the road.
“Hey!” one of the inmates yelled after him.
The motorist was in no mood, so he continued on his miserable way.
“Hey!” the man yelled again, more insistently.
The man walking on the road turned around reluctantly. “What is it?” he asked.
“Why don’t you take one of the lug nuts off each of the other wheels, put the good tire on with those three lug nuts, and then you can at least drive as far as the auto parts store.”
The motorist stood there, flummoxed. “That’s a good idea,” he said. He had the tire on in a jiffy, and as he was about to get into the car, he looked up to thank the inmate, which he did, profusely. And then, though he didn’t want to ask, he thought he needed to. “Look,” he said. “That was a pretty bright idea. If you don’t mind my asking, how is that you . . .”
With that the inmate cut him off. “Don’t worry about that,” he said. “I’m in here for being crazy, not for being stupid.”