A male romance novelist was hiking in the mountains, and he came upon a shepherd who was tending a large herd of sheep that were grazing in the alpine meadow. The writer took a fancy to the sheep, and asked the shepherd: “If I can guess how many sheep you have, can I have one?”
The shepherd thought this was an odd request, but thought that there was little chance that the man would guess the exact number of sheep, so he said, “Sure.”
The writer guessed, “You have 297 sheep.”
The shepherd was astonished, since this was exactly how many sheep he had.
The writer got excited and asked, “Can I pick out my sheep now?”
The shepherd grudgingly gave his permission. The writer selected his sheep, bent over, and swung the sheep over his shoulders, to carry home with him.
The shepherd then asked, “If I guess what your occupation is, can I have my sheep back?”
The novelist was a bit surprised by this, but figured that it was unlikely that the shepherd would be able to guess his occupation, and went along with the deal.
The shepherd then guessed “You’re a romance novelist, aren’t you?”
The writer was very surprised and asked, “How did you know?”
The shepherd responded, “Just put the dog down and we’ll talk about it.”
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