Twenty Sad Stories

Reuven, Shimon, and Levi went touring in New York City on vacation. They stayed on the sixtieth floor of a large apartment building. Before they went out touring, Reuven gave the key to their room to Levi to hold, saying that he may lose it. Levi also feared losing it, so he gave it to the attendant of the building to hold for them.

One night, upon arriving home very late, the attendant of the apartment building said that the elevator was broken; they’d have to walk up sixty flights to their room. They decided that, to pass the time, Reuven would sing the first twenty flights, Shimon would tell funny stories for the next twenty flights, and Levi would tell sad stories for the last twenty flights.

As they were huffing and puffing through the first twenty flights, Reuven was singing. When they finally reached the twenty-first flight, Shimon had them rolling with laughter from his funny stories. At the fortieth flight, when they felt as if they were about to drop dead, Reuven turned to Levi and said, “Your turn to tell us sad stories.”

Levi looked up and said, “I can only think of one sad story: We left the key at the bottom!”