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A man who had lived a very selfish life decided that he needed to reform his ways and do some good for others for a change. He wondered how he could do this, and decided he should visit sick people in hospital to cheer them up.
So he went along to the hospital at visiting time, and on looking round, saw one bed where there weren't any visitors and went over. He found an elderly Chinese man in an oxygen tent, who was looking very ill.
He stood by the bed and chatted to the man for a while, but didn't get any response. Then suddenly the patient looked very agitated and gestured for a pencil and pad that were lying on the table beside him.
The visitor handed these over, the Chinese man scribbled a something down in Chinese characters and fell back on the pillow looking dreadful.
The visitor stood there wondering what to do and eventually called over a nurse. But it was too late - the old man was dead.
So now the visitor had a piece of paper with Chinese characters on it that he couldn't read, and it seemed the old man did not have any family he could give it to. He felt it was important to get it translated as it was the old man's last message to the world.
He couldn't find an interpreter, but eventually had the bright idea of going to a Chinese laundry and asked for the owner.
"Can you read Chinese calligraphy?" he asked the owner of the laundry. The man said he could, so our hero handed over the precious message and asked whether the laundry man could read it.
"Oh yes," said the laundry man.
"Well, what does it say?"
"It says 'Take foot off oxygen tube' " replied the laundry man.
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