The Omnipresent Timekeeper

 

On a visit to a Sai Baba satsang, I listened with great amusement to a story told to the large audience of Swami's sense of timing and impish humour.

It seemed that the speaker, a delightful Indian school teacher, was instructing junior pupils at one of Sai Baba's schools in India.

On the day in question, Swami was due to visit the school.  That morning, the teacher was unfortunately a few minutes late in arriving at his class.  Later, when Swami arrived to tour the school and was visiting this particular teacher's classroom, He made various inquiries of the young pupils, finally asking them, before leaving, and speaking of their teacher "... and is he punctual?"

To the teacher's discomfort, a little girl at the back of the class put up her hand.  "Please, Swami," she said, "He was late for class this morning."  Baba looked disapprovingly at the unhappy teacher before moving on and later in the day, He reprimanded him for being "one hour" late for class.  The poor teacher protested and denied being so late.  "No, no, Swami, I was only a few minutes late."  But Baba replied: "Twenty pupils, each kept waiting three minutes = one hour late!"

(From the book "Sai Humour")