Nagging Worse Than Death

Actor Robin Williams has joked that “God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time.”

That was perhaps the problem for a Chinese truck driver who got so tired of his wife’s nagging he risked death jumping into a fast flowing river to avoid it.

The man, known as Zhou, and his wife were on a ferry on the Yangtze River when it all became too much for him, the Chongqing Evening Post reports.

Members of the ship’s crew saw the man suddenly run out of his cabin with his hands covering his ears, shouting: “I can’t stand it any longer.”

Driven Overboard

They initially thought he was suffering from an ear injury and went to help him but found he was unhurt.

“While we were still puzzling over this, his wife ran up and continued nagging him,” said a crewmate.

“The husband covered his ears again and said: ‘I need a break’ before jumping over the side into the rushing river.

“We immediately found lamps to light up the water but found nobody. The possibility of survival can be zero.”

Dying Better Than Nagging

However, later that night, police found the man who had managed to swim about 2km across across the broad river.

“I felt I was dying, but even that’s better than my wife’s nagging,” he reportedly told the police.

The couple were reunited the following morning at the local police station.

She might have agreed with British politician and physician Edith Clara Summerskill’s view   – “Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths” – but after her husband’s near-brush with death she agreed to give up her habit of nagging him.