1. The Bus Stop
On a new route, the driver asked passengers to tell him if he missed their stop. An older man rang the bell and said, “The one by the big tree.”
The driver saw three big trees ahead. He stopped at the first. The man shook his head. At the second, he shook it again.
The third tree stood outside the library. The man smiled and got off.
“Why didn’t you say library?” the driver asked.
“I thought you’d know the big tree,” he said. “I’ve never been inside the library.”
2. The Taxi Receipt
After a short taxi ride, Noura asked for a receipt. The driver printed one, but the destination line said HOME.
“How did it know?” she asked.
“I typed that as a shortcut for my regular customer.”
Noura had never ridden with him before. They looked at the apartment building and laughed.
“Does your regular customer live here too?”
“No,” he said. “Apparently the shortcut came with me from my last address.”
He corrected the receipt. Noura kept it because she had, by coincidence, arrived home.
3. The Bicycle Pump
Felix borrowed a pump from his neighbour and inflated both tyres until they felt firm. On the first ride, the bicycle bounced over every small stone.
His neighbour checked the pressure and let a little air out.
“I thought firmer was better,” Felix said.
“Only up to the number written on the tyre.”
Felix read the sidewall for the first time. On the next ride, the road felt smoother.
He returned the pump with a sticky note: THE TYRE HAS INSTRUCTIONS.
His neighbour stuck it to the pump, where the instructions had been printed all along.
4. The Road Sign
The road sign said SLOW CHILDREN AT PLAY. Tom slowed the car and asked his daughter whether the children were slow at playing.
“It means you drive slowly,” she said.
“I know. I’m checking your punctuation.”
At home she drew a comma after SLOW on a picture of the sign. Then she drew a second version: CHILDREN AT PLAY, DRIVE SLOWLY.
“Which is clearer?” she asked.
Tom pointed to hers. “You should send it to the council.”
“First,” she replied, “you should stop testing my punctuation while driving.”
5. The Ferry Queue
The ferry staff told passengers to line up by boarding group. Ben looked at his ticket and saw the letter B.
He joined the B queue. At the gate, the attendant explained that B was his seat deck; his boarding group was printed below it as 3.
He walked to group 3 and recognized two people from the B queue. They had made the same mistake.
“We’ll all sit near each other,” one said.
“Only if our decks match,” Ben replied.
They checked their tickets and discovered that all three were on different decks.