Three colleagues were attending a business convention and returned to their hotel to find that the elevator was broken and that they would have to use the stairs to get to their rooms.
The problem was that not only were they tired after a long day at the convention, the hotel was a skyscraper and as fate would have it, their rooms were on the 75th floor!
Previously happy with their hotel booking, each of them was now secretly cursing their choice of such a high building, even though when they arrived the previous evening they were amazed at the view that they had over the city.
But elevators do have their problems, usually at the worst of times, and with a broken elevator, there was no option but to climb the stairs to get to their rooms.
One of them suggested that they help break the monotony of having to climb all those stairs by focusing on something interesting, and the others both agreed that this was a great idea.
Tom said that he would be happy to tell jokes for the first 25 floors, and the others both agreed, since Tom had a knack of telling jokes in a way that made you laugh, even if they were terrible.
Dick said that he could sing songs for the next 25 floors, and the others thought that was a good idea, since although Dick’s voice wasn’t the best in the world, he knew the lyrics to some good folk songs as well as some classic rock from bands that that they all loved.
Harry said that for the last 25 floors he could do his bit by telling sad stories, and oh boy was he a good story teller too. When Harry was on form his sad stories could make everyone shed a tear.
And so off the three friends set, climbing up the 75 flights of stairs, while Tom told some of the best jokes in his repertoir. The three of them were in stitches with laughter, even though they had heard some of them before.
When they got to the 26th floor, Dick took over and began to sing, and they listened to some and joined in others as floor by floor they climbed slowly up the stairs.
Once they reached the 51st floor, it was Harry’s turn to take over, and he said to them that he was going to tell some sad stories, starting with the saddest story of them all: “sorry guys – I left the room key in the car…”
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