Three convicts were riding quietly on a prison transport bus, shackled together and staring out the windows as the road stretched ahead of them. To make the long sentence ahead a little more bearable, each inmate had been granted permission to bring along one personal item to help pass the time behind bars.
After a few minutes of silence, one convict broke the ice and turned to the man beside him.
“So,” he asked casually, “what did you bring with you?”
The second convict smiled proudly and pulled out a neat box of paints and brushes. “I plan to paint everything I can,” he said with confidence. “Walls, boxes, anything they’ll let me touch. Who knows—maybe I’ll become the Grandma Moses of jail.” He nodded toward the first man. “What about you?”
The first convict grinned and produced a deck of cards. “Cards,” he said. “Poker, solitaire, gin rummy—doesn’t matter. I’ll never be bored.”
As they talked, they noticed the third convict sitting quietly, grinning to himself the entire time.
Curious, the first two asked, “What’s with the smile? What did you bring?”
The third convict slowly pulled out a box of tampons and held it up like a prize.
The other two stared at him, completely confused.
“What on earth can you do with those?” they asked.
The man pointed at the box and said calmly,
“Well, according to the instructions… I can swim, ride a bike, go horseback riding, and even play tennis.”
