A man was walking through the city when he noticed someone standing on a street corner, calmly snapping his fingers over and over again.
Curious, he walked over and asked,
“Excuse me, why do you keep snapping your fingers?”
The man simply smiled and continued snapping without saying a word.
The passerby shrugged and went on his way.
A few hours later, he walked by the same corner and saw the very same man still snapping his fingers at the same steady pace.
He asked again,
“Seriously, why are you snapping your fingers?”
Once again, the man only smiled and kept snapping.
By evening, the passerby came through the area for a third time.
Sure enough, the man was still there, snapping his fingers.
Now completely frustrated, he marched up to him and said,
“All right, you’ve got to tell me. Why are you doing that?”
The man finally answered,
“I’m keeping the elephants away.”
The passerby looked around in disbelief.
“Elephants? There aren’t any elephants within thousands of miles of here!”
The man smiled, snapped his fingers again, and said,
“Looks like it’s working pretty well, doesn’t it?”