A guy is driving the streets of San Francisco on his lunch hour when he passes by a curiosity shop. He sees, in the front window, a brass rat.
Well, he needs a paperweight, so he parks, goes in, and buys it. As the proprietor is taking his money, he tells the guy,
"You know, there's an interesting story behind this brass rat."
"I'd love to hear it," replies the customer, "but I have to be back at work in ten minutes."
"Perhaps some other time," says the proprietor, handing him the receipt.
The guy gets into his car, puts the brass rat on the passenger seat, and rolls down the windows for better ventilation. He pulls into traffic, and looks in the rear-view mirror. There, scurrying along in the street behind him, is a live rat.
The guy stops for the stop sign, makes a right turn, and looks into the rear-view mirror. Ten rats.
He runs the red light at the next cross street, nearly gets run into, makes it into the next block, and looks into the rear-view mirror. A hundred rats!
He heads for the Golden Gate Bridge, passes the bridge abutment, and looks into the rear-view mirror. A thousand rats!!!
He reaches the middle of the bridge, realizes that it's the brass rat on the passenger seat that's causing all this trouble, picks it up, and tosses it out the passenger-side window. Ten thousand screaming rats follow it to their death in San Francisco Bay!!!!!!!!!!
He screeches to a stop at the Marin County end of the bridge and looks around. No rats.
A shaken man, he drives slowly and unsteadily back to the curiosity shop.
"Ah!", says the proprietor. "I see you've come back to hear the story of the brass rat!"
"No," replies the guy. "I want to buy ..."
"... a brass lawyer."