Riddle

     "Today I have a new riddle for you, George."
     "Let's hear it, Sam."
     "Listen carefully: the man who invented it doesn't want it; the man who bought it doesn't need it; the man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?"
     "A coffin."
     "How the hell did you know that?"
     "Sam, you must be losing it. You ask me that same riddle at least once a year."
     "Try another one then. A Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew each owe a dead friend $100. As they stand over the casket in remorse for not having paid the debt while the friend was alive, the Catholic and the Protestant each throw in a $100 bill, saying 'better late than never.' The Jew agrees with the sentiment and tosses in a check for $100. So what's the answer to the riddle?"
     "That's easy. He threw in a check because he knew the dead friend can't cash it."
     "Did I tell you that one before?"
     "No, but any school kid would understand that riddle. Besides, it's more of a joke than a riddle. Give me a real riddle."
     "You want a riddle? Here's a riddle. What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?"
     "Sam, you never asked this one before. But this doesn't seem like a riddle. It's more like a missing person or criminal case."
     "Oh, there's a riddle in this one. James R. Hoffa disappeared in October 1975. He was last seen alive in a restaurant parking lot. They never found his body. The FBI led the investigation and they claimed that Hoffa was rubbed out by mobsters. The FBI didn't have sufficient evidence to prosecute. Hoffa was the former head of the Teamsters Union. Yesterday I was watching TV and I heard a news reporter say that police were looking for his body under a driveway someplace in Michigan."
      "Did they find the body?"
      "No, that was another false alarm. So what happened to Jimmy Hoffa?"
     "Damned if I know. Do I look like a psychic? Your riddle about Hoffa reminds me of the Mad Hatter's riddle in Alice in Wonderland. 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' Alice answers: 'I think you might do something better with the time than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answer.' Sam, no one knows what happened to Jimmy Hoffa."
     "Well, George, there's still a riddle in it and I can show you where it is. As for Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, as I recall, Lewis Carroll gave an explanation for the Mad Hatter's riddle: 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' After the book was published, Carroll wrote: 'because it can produce a few notes tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front.'"  
     "Sam, don't tell me you remember that from grade school?"
     "George, I'm not suggesting that I did. I was watching PBS last week and I heard a woman discussing it. By the way, just so you know, Jimmy Hoffa's full name is James Riddle Hoffa."
     "Is that the truth?"
     "It is."
     A young waitress walks by their table with a pot of hot coffee.
     "Miss--a refill, please--regular coffee. Thanks."
     "Same. Thanks." 

 
Reference: Gangsters, Inc.