Billy was a bright young chap , but not so bright that he was blackhaired . He was a d a r k e r b rownhairthanmostbutnotall kind of guy , perfectly respectable , not intimidating . One day , much to his surprise , Billy got laid off from work . A couple of weeks of moping around in the house and doing nothing ensued , but eventually he decided to pull himself together . He started by cleaning . While he was scrubbing the floors , he accidentally spilled some bleach on his head . After carefully washing it out , he realized his hair had become a shade lighter he ' d gotten a blonde strand . At first he was embarrassed . Then it dawned on him , and he promptly covered his hair in bleach , and washed it out . Solid blonde . He bleached it again . Lighter yet . After a few more cycles , he ' d gone to platinum blonde and beyond his hair was white as snow . He walked outside . Neighbors gave him odd looks . He got into his car , and a passerby yelled are you sure you should be driving ? Billy ' s plan worked the rest of the world perceived him as a complete imbecile , perhaps the dumbest man alive . He applied for all possible disability grants , needing only to point to his head as evidence of being totally unfit to take care of himself . He even went on TV , marketing himself as the dumbest man on the planet . It was easy to keep up the act he didn ' t even have to talk . He could be drunk in public , and nobody could tell ! Life for Billy was great at first , but the novelty wore off . The fame became less appealing when Billy realized that all his fans looked down on him . There was little he could do about this without coming out as a liar , an idea which gave Billy great anxiety . Similarly , Billy was unable to enjoy his gained material wealth in any meaningful way that wouldn ' t blow his cover . The terrible secret that he was hiding confined him to loneliness . He thought he was a smart man pretending to be a great fool , but it gradually dawned on him that he was not smart enough to extricate himself from his lifeconsuming act . Billy had unwittingly , through a lack of foresight , committed an inescapable folly . Every day he dyed his hair white , and so he couldn ' t see the effect his great mistake was having his real , natural hair color slowly got lighter , month by month .