Holmes and Watson go camping

I've heard several variations of this. Jokes are like recipes: your own broccoli-and-mac&cheese-casserole is good (maybe) and someone else's is different but also good (maybe). I remember finding this listed as "the funniest joke in the world" (according to some poll). That may be. I think it is funny. But de gustibus non est disputandum, if I may be so bold as to use my "quasi knowledge of latin": don't dispute over taste.

I hope you know the characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson, from Conan Doyle's delightful stories. If not, see what you can do about that before you read this one.

Holmes and Watson take what for them is an unusual vacation: they go tent-camping. They come to a beautiful secluded spot, Holmes noting how macabre and violent crimes are so much more possible in the country than in the city, they set up their tent...

... after their evening excursions, they return to the tent, climb in, and bed down for the night.

After they have been asleep some time, Holmes wakes, and then rouses Watson.

"Watson, look at the sky and tell me what you deduce."

Watson sleepily looks up at the clear night sky full of stars.

"Well, Holmes, there are thousands, even millions of stars... and some of those stars may be quite like the Sun, and if that is so, why, it seems likely that around some of those stars there may be planets revolving, and if that is so, why, some of those planets may be very like the Earth, and, well, there may be life out there, life on other planets!"

Holmes turns and looks hard at his companion.

"Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!"