Zubair hated small spaces, slow walkers, and—above all—elevators. But today, he had no choice. The office building he was visiting had a strict “No Stairs Allowed” policy (mostly because the stairs had mysteriously turned into a storage room for broken chairs and abandoned lunchboxes).
As he stepped into the elevator, he was relieved to see only one other person inside—a serious-looking old man in a suit. “Safe ride,” Zubair thought.
Just as the doors were closing, a hand shot through. In walked a delivery guy with a giant bag of samosas, followed by a man loudly talking on his phone, a mother with a crying baby, and—worst of all—his boss.
Zubair panicked. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He had taken the day off claiming he had a “family emergency” (which, in reality, was just him wanting to avoid the weekly report meeting).
The elevator started moving. He turned away, trying to look as unrecognizable as possible. But just as he thought he had avoided detection—BAM.
The elevator jerked to a stop.
The lights flickered. The crying baby cried louder. The samosa guy sighed dramatically. The man on the phone said, “Haan bhai, ab toh lagta hai yeh duniya hi chhodni padegi.”
Zubair’s boss looked around and then spotted him. “Oh! Zubair! I thought you had a ‘family emergency’ today?”
Zubair froze. His brain scrambled for an answer. “Uh… yes! My…uh… cousin’s parrot is very sick.”
His boss raised an eyebrow. “Parrot?”
“Yes, sir,” Zubair continued, doubling down on the lie. “He—uh—he swallowed a… a USB drive.”
The elevator was silent for a moment. Even the baby stopped crying.
Then the old man in the suit spoke. “I hope the parrot didn’t have sensitive data inside.”
The entire elevator burst into laughter. Except for Zubair.
As the doors finally opened, Zubair bolted out—vowing never to take another elevator again.
