When a Buffalo Got Stolen at 8:45 p.m.

Owais Mughal

One fine morning in 1981, our class teacher called in sick. Few students shed crocodile tears and a substitute teacher was sent in by the office to take class teacher’s place for the day. As substitute teachers sometimes do, he was doing anything but teach. He asked our class if anyone knew any jokes. My friend Nauroze Rahimtoola Panjwani immediately stood up and with a flat face told us this joke. I kid you not, it felt so funny that for next five minutes many of us were holding our stomachs and laughing so hard that headmistress had to come in to check on our class. In ‘naujawaani’ (youth), a person laughs a lot anyways – without any reason – and for any excuse, but this joke still makes me smile. Let me try it on you.

It goes like this. A teacher asks a ‘la-parwaah’ (un-attentive) student to write down following sentences in khush-khat (good handwriting) and then show it to him. The sentences were:


The student being unattentive, messes up the sentences and writes down following paragraph:

What happend to the student afterwards is unknown, but I hope it made you smile. For those who think this was too sily, my suggestion would be to lighten up a bit, think about the days when you were in Grade V and read it again :)

For our English readership the translation of what the teacher asked the student to write is:

It was quarter to nine. Stars were shining and dogs were barking. A thief came, climbed over a wall and ran away with a buffalo.

What the student wrote instead was:

It was nine to quarter. Dogs were shining and Stars were barking. A thief came, climbed over a buffalo and ran away with the wall.

Do you have any jokes to share from your school days?

Photo Credits: Akram Ali