Turning the tables

Years ago, when the stock market was booming, stock brokers used to call with hot stock tips.  After awhile, they became such a nuisance that I began to try and counter their advances by trying to sell them plumbing.  Most of them were from La Jolla, so they were actually in an area that we service. 

“Where are you calling from?” I would query.  

“La Jolla, CA,” they would reply.  

“Let me ask you something,” I would continue, “do you have hot water in the building where you work?” 

"Well, yes," they would say, at which point I would advise them that they were probably going to be in the market for a new water heater at some point and then I would begin giving them details of everything that might be encountered should that indeed become the case.  The more they would try and interrupt me and try to get back on the subject of whatever stock plan they were hawking, the more detailed and uninterruptable I would become until finally, exasperated, they would hang up.  

I’d been doing that for several months when one solicitor, listening to my initial spiel, paused for a long moment and said:  “Hey…I remember you!”