Humorists have suffered great losses. Take the old communal apartments—and I mean the ones that didn't even have running water. Now there you had things to observe.
Grandpa sets off for the lavatory at the end of the hallway. Still in his room, he turns on his own light. He takes a bucket of water.
When he gets to the lavatory, he finds somebody already inside. Using his light.
Grandpa can't tolerate this. He hurries back with his bucket of water. Turns off his light. In the meantime, the interloper has left.
Grandpa leaves the bucket behind, goes and investigates. The lavatory is empty. He goes back to his room. Takes the bucket of water. Turns on his light.
He walks to the lavatory, and by the time he gets there, again some bastard is inside. Grandpa grabs his bucket, hurries back, turns out his light.
He goes to the lavatory and stands guard.
So he finally gets in, but he has no water and it's dark.
[Reproduced from http://www.jvanetsky.ru/data/text/t9/v_kommunalke/, with copyright holder's permission. Translated for this project by Alice Nakhimovsky. Translation Copyright © Alice Nakhimovsky. All rights reserved.]
