A packet of cigarettes and three used butts had been found in one of the classrooms. Mr Graham the headmaster had asked that the student responsible make himself known.
Murphy now stood in front of Mr Graham and admitted they were his.
"You know the school policy on smoking Murphy" said Mr Graham , "You are endangering your own health and those around you, and the school takes this very seriously, however since you have had the honesty to come forward voluntarily I propose to give you a choice between the normal six strokes of the cane"
"A choice betweeen the cane and what sir?" asked Murphy
Mr Graham produced a box from behind his desk.
"This box contains ten cards each with a different punishment printed on it, look through them, shuffle them, return them to the box and then pick one out at random"
Murphy looked at each of the cards, the ten punishments were:
A verbal warning
one hours detention
loss of sixth form lunch priveliges for one week(sixth formers had permision to leave the school premises during lunch)
copy one hundred lines of Latin
one slap on each hand with a metal ruler
two slaps on each hand with a leather strap
four strokes of the cane on the backside plus one slap on each hand with a leather strap
six strokes of the cane on the backside, on underpants
full day saturday detention 9am-4pm, plus six strokes of the cane-three to be administered on arrival at 9am and three before departure at 4pm
six stokes with a long leather strap, bare backside
Murphy thought to himself that he had a 50 50 chance of getting off very lightly.
"I'll pick a card from the box sir" he said
Murphy shuffled the cards returned them to the box closed his eyes and picked one out. His heart sank when he saw what he had chosen-one of the worse ones-six strokes of the cane on the backside, underpants!
He handed the card to Mr Graham.
"very well Murphy , drop your trousers and bend over."
Murphy dropped his trousers, he was wearing white cotton trunk style boxer shorts underneath, he was an athletic boy and they looked as well on him as they had on the model on the packaging, it has to be said though that the model was not in the pose Murphy found himself now!
He bent over and felt the first stroke hit his backside, ow! it hurt and stung, it was amazing how much of a difference the extra protection of trousers provided.
Stroke number tow was aimed just below the first, number three just above, for five and six progressively lower.
Mr Graham was an expert at providing full coverage with his canings, never hitting the same spot twice.
At last it was over. "You can pull up your trousers now Murphy and leave."
"Thank you sir" said Murphy as he walked painfully out the door.