There’s a story told about a woman playing the slot machines in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The evening is still young when the woman wins a bucket full of quarters.

What happens next is told to David Letterman on his late night show. It’s a true story: The woman tells her husband she isn’t comfortable carrying around the bucket full of quarters. She tells her husband she’ll take the bucket up to their room at the hotel and meet him in the dining room.

When the elevator doors open there are only two passengers on board -- two black men, one medium sized and the other a giant of a man.

The woman freezes! Fearing to make eye contact, she thinks, "I’m not a bigot. These men look like perfectly nice gentlemen -- they’re not going to rob me."

The silence is broken with the smaller man saying, "Hit the floor!" Instantly the woman obeys. She spread-eagles on the floor of the elevator as quarters fly everywhere. Following a moment of deafening silence, the smaller man says, "Ma’am, if you’ll just tell us what floor you want, we’ll hit the elevator button."

The woman slowly tilts her head upward and sees the two men trying very hard not to burst out laughing. The men help the embarrassed woman to her feet, then all three gather up the quarters.

When the elevator arrives at the woman’s floor the two men accompany the woman to her room. Overwhelmed with embarrassment, she apologizes for making a spectacle of herself. Nobody is laughing out loud, but both men are biting their lips to suppress belly-laughs.

The woman prepares for supper, secures her quarters in the room safe and goes down to the dining room to join her husband.

The next day a dozen roses are delivered to the woman’s room with a crisp $100 bill folded around each stem.

There’s a note attached: "Thanks for the best laugh we’ve had in years." The note is signed by Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan.