Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev used to tell of a time when there was a wave of petty theft in the Soviet Union. To curtail this, the authorities put guards around the factories.
At a timber works in Leningrad, one guard knew the workers in the factory very well.
The first evening, out came Pyotr Petrovich with a wheelbarrow containing a great bulky sack with a suspicious-looking object inside.
"All right, Petrovich," said the guard, "what have you got there?"
"Oh, just sawdust and shavings," Petrovich replied.
"Come on," the guard said, "I wasn’t born yesterday. Tip it out."
The worker tipped and nothing came out but sawdust and shavings. So he was allowed to put it all back again and go home.
When the same thing happened every night of the week the guard became frustrated...
