You all know the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Hamelin was overrun by rats. Nothing the citizens tried worked. The Piper said he'd get rid of them for a bag of gold. He did and then the town rooked him. He then took all the kids and they were never seen again. That's the abridged version. Here's the unabridged version.

Hamelin existed for hundreds of years with only minor rat problems. All of a sudden, they were overrun with them. There wasn't any road construction going on so why were there so many rats all of a sudden? Simple. The Pied piper was running a con. They were his rats.

They go from town to town. The rats would tear the town up and then the Piper would lead them away. He'd go back, collect the gold, buy up whatever was left of the cheese and they'd move on to the next town.

When the Piper went back to Hamelin he was rudely surprised.

"Well, Pied, it's this way. We lied to you. Here, here's a silver coin. Bye."

The Pied Piper went back to the rats and was sitting there crying. The rats were sitting there eyeing him up. Either they eat cheese or they eat a Piper. The Piper looked at the rats and said, "Whoa!! Let's go grab the kids. Then we'll get even more gold- er, cheese."

That night the rats stole all the kids. The Piper went back into town and told them, "Gold or I keep the kids."

"Hmm, it's been very quiet here. No vandalism, no noise; we fired the teacher, saved some money there. We turned the schoolhouse into a nightclub. You keep them."

"Uh, no, um, I'll bring them back. They are a pain in the butt."

"No, no. You stole them fair and square. You keep them."

"I don't want them!"

"Neither to we!! Get out of here!!"

Well, the rats carried the children back, tucked them into their beds, and went back to the Piper.

Then they ate him.