The boy with a burlap sack for a body

An old friend forwarded me this, it is a satire of the bogus fund-raising letters so often used by spammers, identity phishers and pranksters.

Note: this is a prank, not reality! I did not write it, but am posting it here, as I do not know who the author is and wanted to share it.

"I am a very sick little boy. My mother is typing this
for me, because I can't. She is crying. Don't cry,
Mommy! Mommy is always sad, but she says it's not my
fault. I asked her if it was God's fault, but she
didn't answer, and only started crying harder, so I
don't ask her that anymore. The reason she is so sad
is that I'm so sick. I was born without a body. It
doesn't hurt, except when I go to sleep.

The doctors gave me an artificial body. My body is a
burlap bag filled with leaves. The doctors said that
was the best they could do on account of us havin'
no money or insurance. I would like to have a body
transplant, but we need more money. Mommy doesn't
work because she said employers don't hire crying
people. I said, "Don't cry, Mommy," and she hugged my
burlap body. Mommy always gives me hugs, even though
she's allergic to burlap, and it chafes her real bad.

I hope you will help me. You can help me if you
forward this e-mail. Dr. Johansen said if you foward
this e-mail then Bill Gates will team up with AOL and
do a survey with NASA. Then the astronauts will
collect prayers from school children all over America
and take them up to space so that the angels can hear
them better. Then they will go to the Pope, and he
will take up a collection in church and send the money
to the doctors. The doctors could help me better
then.

Maybe one day I will be able to play baseball. Or
maybe just use my lungs and heart, when the doctors
make them. The doctors said that every time you foward
this letter, the astronauts can take another prayer to
the angels. Please help me. Mommy is so sad, and I
want a body. I don't want my leaves to rot before I
turn 10.

If you don't foward this e-mail, that's OK. Mommy says
you're a mean heartless person who doesn't care about
a poor little boy with only a head. She says that she
hopes that you stew in the raw pit of your own
guilt-ridden stomach. What kind of wretched person are
you that you can't take five lousy minutes to forward
this to all your friends so that they can feel guilt
and shame for the rest of their day, and then maybe
help a poor, bodiless nine-year-old boy?

Please help me. This really sucks. I try to be happy
but it's hard. I wish I had a puppy. I wish I could hold a puppy.

Thank You.

Billy 'Smiles' Evans,
The boy with just a head.
And a burlap sack for a body. "

Yes, it is sick, in its own way, but I am also certain that there are some people who will actually believe this to be for real. Demonstrating that maybe we need to require people buy a license to own a computer or get on the internet.

Technorato Tags: web culture online humor spam fundraising burlap