A Brass Rat

A man, new to town, is having a walk around familiarising himself with his locale.
He comes across a curious antique shop filled with strange and exotic items and goes inside.
After some time browsing around he finds himself in a dark and neglected looking corner and sees an odd looking, stylised brass rat with tiny, mystical symbols etched into the surface. Picking it up he blows off some dust and gives it a rub to get a better look. Not recognising the symbols but still quite taken by the appearance of the little figure, he decides to buy it and display it at his new home.

He goes to the counter, pays for his new ornament then pops it into his bag and leaves the shop.
As he's crossing the street he swears he saw a rat peering at him from behind a litter bin but ignores it and keeps walking.
Looking over his shoulder he sees the rat again....and it's following him.
A few more steps and curiosity gets the better of him so he looks again and there are two rats.
Coincidence. He tells himself but starts to walk a little faster.
Hearing a squeek and scurrying claws, another look and there are several more rats joining his entourage.

Now he's a bit more worried and picks up the pace still trying to convince himself it's nothing and it's a long, straight street with few turnings so they must all be just going the same way.
Alerted by more squeeks he's alarmed to see a whole throng of rats and, what's more, they're getting closer and closer.
Breaking into a run and starting to panic by the huge crowd of rats the penny finally drops and he connects this strange occurrence with his new ornament.
Now out of breath but sprinting for all he's worth he sees a sign for the river and follows the turning until the water is in sight, takes the brass rat from his bag and hurls it as far as he can into the widest part . The rats swarm past him and chase the brass ornament into the river where they all follow it to the bottom and drown.

Relieved but a little bewildered he gets a few breaths, thinks for a moment then starts to head back into town and returns to the antique shop.
The shopkeeper, recognising his recent customer and seeing he looks flustered asks "Are you alright sir? Everything OK with your purchase? "

"Yes, fine, fine" says the man

"only.......you don't have any brass lawyers do you???"

a reply to: Tulpa

Several evenings every week I meet a few friends under somebody's porch and we pass the evening hours visiting. I'm going to tell this on next I see them.

Except I'll change lawyers to politicians.

a reply to: incoserv

I hope they like it.

I just fancied a change from talking about the two "V" words and thought an old joke would help lighten things up.

Feel free to add any more if anyone's got any.

I approve of this method of "pest" removal.