The Happy Sweeper

A loutish kid and his mates were visiting a theme park. They arrived very early and everything was empty and clean. A park cleaner came by, singing and dancing as he swept. As everything was already so clean, the group of friends found it amusing to see how the cleaner worked so joyfully, and so early in the morning. They had a great time making fun of him. But the cleaner didn't mind, and just kept sweeping the area clean.

So the gang started throwing bags and bits of paper on the ground, 'to give him something to do'. When more visitors started arriving, and saw the lout and his friends throwing litter about, they thought it was one of the park's fun activities. So they joined in, and as more people arrived, the park became covered in rubbish. The park cleaner couldn't cope. No one seemed to be bothered, but something strange started happening.

As time went on, the park attractions were emptying, and more people were looking down at the rubbish on the ground. By the end of the day no one was on any of the park rides; they were all standing about, looking at the ground. "Well," said the park authorities, "what's going on here?"

Well... Everyone was looking for something!
It turned out that some time during that day, everyone had dropped something on the ground, but now that it was covered with litter, whenever anyone dropped anything... it was almost impossible to find it!

There was no other solution than have everyone help to clean the park, so they could find their things. Encouraged by the park cleaner, the visitors swept the ground, singing and dancing all the while. It became so much fun that from that day they created a new activity in the park, in which everyone, armed with brushes and bags, spent a while cleaning, laughing, and dancing.