The Sign Interpreter

The New York mafia hires a deaf-mute man to collect its protection money, figuring he can’t sing if he gets caught. In his first week the collector picks up more than $50,000. The second week he stashes the money and tries to leave town, but the mafia guys catch him and use an interpreter to grill him.

"Ask him where the money is," says the don. The interpreter signs, "Where’s the money?"

The collector signs, "I don’t know what you’re talking about," and the interpreter says, "He don’t know what you’re talking about." The don then pulls out a .38 and puts it in the deaf guy’s ear.

"Now ask him where the money is."

The deaf man signs frantically, "It’s in Central Park, in the third tree stump on ..."

The interpreter says, "He says he still don’t know what you’re talking about, and that you don’t have the balls to pull the trigger."