Travis Parker had been pushing his VW van for many miles and the old nag finally gave up trying in a small town somewhere in Nebraska.
The local mechanic gave Travis a look of pity as he explained that it would cost about three hundred dollars to get the van running again. Unfortunately, Travis only had about fifteen bucks.
Feeling utterly defeated, Travis slumped on a sidewalk bench and tried to think of a way out of his latest disaster. Dozing slightly, Travis was awakened by a loud voice.
"Hey kid, you want to make some money?" said a grizzled old man in a Dodge truck. This was the only offer Travis had gotten all day and he was taking it.
The old man drove Travis to his farm outside of town and showed him an enormous pile of beer cans. "I'll pay you fifty dollars to bag the cans and take them to the recycling center and whatever the aluminum is worth you can keep." the old man said.
Bagging up the cans was not as easy as Travis had thought it would be. There were rats and mosquitoes and the noxious odor of stale beer, but the old man was pretty decent and fed him lunch and dinner.
The thousands of cans brought in over four hundred dollars at the recycling center and that plus the fifty dollars for cleaning up the mess was enough to get his van fixed.
Travis thought about getting a six-pack before leaving town, but he was pretty sure that he never wanted to see another beer can as long as he lived.
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