Forgiveness isn't always easier to get than permission

Alternate title to this post: Indigestion, anyone?

Back when I was growing up, we had a huge cherry tree in our back yard. Each year this tree produced an unbelievable amount of dark red, juicy delicious cherries.
One year, the tree became infested with worms. For the next several years, no matter what kind of dangerous chemicals we sprayed the tree with, the stupid little critters wouldn't go away and we weren't able to eat the cherries because of the bonus worm protein contained inside.
(I guess technically we could have eaten them, but EWWWWWW!)

My aunt and uncle lived directly behind us, and when we had our fence built, we installed a gate between our two yards to make it easy to visit each other.
One day, my cousin came home from school to see her dad, my uncle, sitting in front of the TV, snacking on a huge bowl which was halfway filled with cherries.
"Hey Dad" she said "Where did you get the cherries?"
"I got them next door." He replied, waving his hand toward our house.
I really would have loved to see the look on his face when she told him
"Um, didn't you know those cherries have worms in them?"



He had eaten over half of the bowl.


Moral of the story:
Always get permission before stealing fruit.