One day, many years ago, there was an elderly man, who lived with his nephews. This man was quite fond of luxuries, wanting only the finest things in life; if anyone else had anything better than him, he either wanted it, or wanted it destroyed. Nobody, he decided, was allowed to have anything nicer than he had, not even his own family.
One day, his nephews left their home together, and he noticed that they had taken their checkbook with them. This piqued his curiosity; what on earth were they planning to buy that could be so expensive that they needed a check? He pondered over this for hours until they finally returned home. He immediately came down upon them, demanding to know where they had gone. However much he pried for information, however, they said nothing. This only served to make him curious and angry.
Finally, that night, when his nephews had gone to bed, he made his way into their room and took their checkbook. He looked through it until he found the page he was looking for; as he suspected, they had used one of their checks that day to purchase themselves a new car!
He was outraged; if they had hidden this fact from him, it could only mean that it was a nicer car than his own. They knew he would not stand for this; why else would they hide it from him? And so, he put on his slippers, grabbed a flashlight, and went looking for the new car...he would either take it for himself, or destroy it!
After hours of searching, he finally found it hidden in the gardener's shed behind their house. It was a beautiful car, much, MUCH nicer than his own. He knew his nephews, however, and knew that they wouldn't have bought this is if it wasn't also impossibly loud and fast. He had no love of their noisy speed machines, and decided that since he wasn't going to have it, they weren't going to either.
He slashed the tires. He slashed the seats. He crushed the headlights. He poured plant fertilizer into the fuel tank. He smashed in the windows. He smashed in the bodywork. By the time he was satisfied with his work, it could not possibly be recognized as a car.
The next morning he awoke, feeling quite satisfied with putting his nephews back in their place, when he heard them calling out to him from downstairs. They were calling for him to come out to the gardener's shed...they must have seen what happened to their beautiful new car, he thought with a smile, and so, downstairs he went, out into the back of the house. Just outside the shed, he found his nephews...not with looks of sadness and grief, but the most joyous smiles he'd ever seen on them. What was the meaning of this?!
The youngest of his nephews held out his hands...laying across his palms was a car's ignition key.
"Happy birthday, uncle!"