Once upon a time a little bunny rabbit sat in the forest, typing away furiously at a typewriter. A fox walked up and asked the rabbit what he was doing. "I am writing a thesis," came the reply.

"Interesting," said the fox, "do you have a title?"

"No, but I have a topic, Rabbits are the most important animals in the forest." The fox laughed. The rabbit said: "OK, just follow me down to my borough and I will demonstrate."

So off they went into the rabbit's borough. A little while later, the rabbit reappeared, by himself, and went back to his typing.

Sometime later, a wolf came by and asked the bunny what he was doing. "I am writing a thesis."

"Interesting," said the wolf, "do you have a title?"

"Oh yes," replied the rabbit, "my title is The Rabbit: Master of the Forest." The wolf was incredulous, he laughed and laughed. He could not believe that anyone could have a thesis with such a preposterous title. Plus, it meant that the puny rabbit was master over the powerful wolf. What a joke. He asked the rabbit for a scientific proof. Again, the rabbit invited the doubter into his borough. Again, the rabbit came back up a few minutes later, without the wolf, and resumed typing.

Sometime later, a man walked by, saw the rabbit hard at work, and asked the bunny what he was doing.

The reply came: "I am writing a thesis."

"Interesting," said the man, "what is your field and area?"

"It is an easy one," replied the rabbit, "my field is the demonstrable superiority of rabbits over all creatures in the forest."

The man had a good laugh about it and demanded the rabbit prove to him how it was so. The rabbit said "Come down to my borough and I shall show you." So down they went into the borough where the rabbit lived. The man looked around and saw a pile of fox bones in one corner, and a pile of wolf bones in another corner. He turned around, and saw that there was a big lion behind him smacking its lips.

The Moral of the Story

• It does not matter what the topic of your thesis is.
• It does not matter what the title of your thesis is.
• The only thing that matters is who your advisor is.

The earliest example of this that I have found so far is http://ftp.std.com/obi/alt.quotations/Archive/quotations

a slightly different version is at http://nightmare.org/textfiles/humor/JOKES/jokin-28.txt

this one is closer to how I remember it: http://www.westworld.com/~niteowl/pages/jokes/Jokes055.html