A store manager heard his clerk tell a customer, “No, ma’am, we haven’t had any for a while, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.”

Horrified, the manager came running over to the customer and said, “Of course we’ll have some soon. We placed an order last week.”

Then the manager drew the clerk aside. “Never,” he snarled, “Never, never, never say we’re out of anything—say we’ve got it on order and it’s coming.

Now, what was it she wanted?”

“Rain,” said the clerk.

James Dent, in Charleston, W.Va. Gazette