A friend of mine has an interesting theory about the Chinese water torture. He Imagines that some clever prisoner is dragged into a torture chamber. The prisoner sees racks, several types of whips, a testicle crusher, pliers designed to be heated and used to rip off fingernails, branding irons, and other horrible devices he cannot imagine a use for. Ye gods, I have been sentenced to suffer here for a month. I do not think I can survive for ten minutes. Then he gets an idea!

He says to one of the guards: "I am so happy to see all these conventional devices. When they told me that this was the worst torture chamber known to man, I was certain that they knew about the Chinese Water Torture. Man, am I glad I will not be facing that."

So the guard asks him to explain. He first makes the guard promise not to tell and explains the Water Torture. Of course the guard rats on him. For a month he pretends to be in agony and begs for the rack, the testicle crusher, et cetera, anything but more of the Water Torture.

When released, he does not brag about being clever. He tells of how horrible it was, hoping to save other prisoners from the rack, et cetera. Other prisoners catch on when they realize that the Water Torture is a piece of cake to tolerate. They scream and complain, keeping up the myth.

Now, do you think my friend has the right idea? Do you think the Water Torture is really terrible?