Two men are waiting for a train.
The younger man turns to the older man and asks, “Excuse me, do you have the time?” The older man ignores him.
A few minutes later, the younger man asks again, “Excuse me, do you know what time it is?” Again, the older man says nothing.
Finally, frustrated, the younger man asks, “Why won’t you answer me when I ask you for the time?”
The older man sighs and says, “Look, if I tell you the time, we’ll start talking. Then, when the train arrives, you might sit next to me. We could get to know each other, and eventually I might invite you over for dinner to meet my daughter. Maybe you two would hit it off. You might start dating, get engaged, and eventually get married.”
“And why would I want a son-in-law who can’t even afford a watch?”
Explanation: The joke builds an absurd chain of events from a simple request for the time. The older man imagines the stranger becoming his son-in-law, then concludes that someone who asks others for the time cannot afford a watch.
