Being Mindful Stories

Joke · Ajahn Brahm

The CIA, the FBI, the LAPD and the rabbit

As told by Ajahn Brahm in What to do when everything falls apart | by Ajahn Brahm | 18-05-2012

1 min read

Content note: police-violence humour; political figure named

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

this is the story of Obama, the president Obama who decided to test out his law enforcement agencies he decided to compare the CIA with the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department so he gave them a test he released a rabbit in the forest. And he sent in the CIA, first of all, to find that rabbit they took two whole months and they sent the president a report that their crack intelligence agents were convinced there was no rabbit in that forest, thank you CIA. And then they sent in the FBI and the FBI went in and with their guns they shot half the trees down in the forest and then they came out after one month saying yes they agree with the CIA there is no rabbit in that forest. And then they sent in the LAPD the Los Angeles Police Department, they were only in there for three or four hours before they brought out this bear and this bear was covered with bruises and cuts it had its hands up and was shouting Okay, I admitted I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 15:17 (to 16:44)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Ajahn Brahm apologised to the Los Angeles police and told the joke regardless. Its point isn't policing; it's that even on a bad day there's some honey dripping somewhere, and you can laugh at life. A monk telling a joke like this in a temple is unexpected, and life is full of such surprises, some of them funny.

In brief (our summary)

Testing his agencies, the President releases a rabbit in a forest: the CIA reports there is no rabbit, the FBI shoots down half the trees and agrees, and the LAPD emerges in hours with a bruised bear shouting “OK, I admit I'm a rabbit!”

Teaching point

(Told as 'today's bad joke' — even when things go wrong, you can laugh at life.)

When this story may help

  • needing a laugh in hard times

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in What to do when everything falls apart | by Ajahn Brahm | 18-05-2012 · 2012-05-21 · ▶ watch from 15:17 to 16:44 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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