The author of this variant on a common theme is not known.

A news item this morning was about a local coal miner. It seems that his avocation was painting, but since he couldn’t afford to buy canvasses he simply painted on the wall of his small cottage.

Unfortunately, a gang of youths broke into his cottage earlier this week and defaced his paintings. Yesterday the young miscreants were charged in court with having … “corrupted the murals of a miner.”