A Quiver Full of Arrows - Broken Routine

Broken Routine

Septimus Horatio Cornwallis is a normal man who has a pretty common routine. He is a Claims Adjuster with an Insurance Company. His routine is extremely tight but one day his routine is badly affected when he is asked to stay late. He returns home in a packed train- when he discovers that a young hoodlum has misappropriated his cigarettes and his newspaper. He decides to confront the young man- and smokes his cigarettes one after the other- the young man does the same and it becomes a contest. Finally Septimus feeling that he has taught the young man a lesson- opens his briefcase to find his cigarettes intact and his paper intact implying that he has actually been smoking the young man's cigarettes and been abusing the young man's papers.

• This idea was used in Dus Kahaniyan in Rohit Roy's Rice Plate, whilst a similar story is told by Arthur Dent in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.