RAY: Here it is.

TOM: All right, so you're going to steal another one from ourselves.

RAY: Well, in the spirit of Christmas, a young boy gets a bunch of money for Christmas and decides that he's going to go downtown and buy himself a fishing rod, a new fishing rod.

TOM: Oooooh.

RAY: So he takes the bus downtown, what page is this on?

TOM: I don't know.

RAY: Page 93 1/2. He takes the bus downtown and goes to the sporting goods store and he buys himself a fishing rod. A while later, he stands at the bus stop, the bus comes, he goes to get on, and the bus driver says, whoaaa, there, sonny. Where are you going with that thing?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And he says, pardon me? He said, I want to go home. He says, not on this bus, you're not, kiddo. He said, how tall are you? And the kid said, hmmm, I don't know, like I'm 4 feet 4. And he said, and the fishing rod is taller than you. It looks to be pretty close to 5 feet. Don't you know there's a city ordinance that you can't carry anything on the bus if it's longer than 4 feet? And the kid says, I didn't know that, but I got to take the bus home because I have a meeting of the young existentialists this afternoon and if I'm late, they'll kill me.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And he says, get off of the bus, and he throws the kid off and the kid tries to --

TOM: Ohhhhh.

RAY: He goes to the sporting goods store and he tries to return the fishing rod.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: They throw him out, too. They say no returns on fishing rods.

TOM: Kid, we're closed.

RAY: Yeah.

TOM: Tough. We got your money, drop dead.

RAY: So the kid stands there bewildered. He goes back into the sporting goods store and he asks for something.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Five minutes later, he's riding the bus home, with his fishing rod.

TOM: Wow.

RAY: Now he didn't ask for a saw, or he didn't ask for, he didn't ask for string to bend the thing. He didn't, he didn't puncture, mutilate, saw or alter the fishing rod in any way.

TOM: Alter in any way.

RAY: Exactly.

TOM: How's that.

RAY: And yet he legally got on the bus and rode it home.

TOM: No!

RAY: And he didn't hold the fishing rod out the window, either.

TOM: Oh, that was my answer.

RAY: Yeah, I knew that. I could see the wheels turning.

TOM: I thought he had just like duct, he asked for duct tape, and he taped it to the side of the bus.

RAY: Yeah. No.

TOM: He got on the bus with the fishing rod.

RAY: With the fishing rod.

TOM: Legally.

RAY: Legally, and rode home. How did he do it? Now if you think you know the answer.

TOM: Did he ask for a quarter so he could call a lawyer?

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]