While traveling in Russia during the days of the USSR, a traveler checks into a shared hotel room (who can afford a private one these days?), and is annoyed to find that the other guests in the room are staying up drinking vodka and getting louder in their criticism of the government as the night goes on.

He goes down to the front desk, orders some tea from room service, and returns to the room. Once there, he gets down on his hands and knees, crawls under the table, and says into the electric outlet, “Sergeant Smorodin, would you mind sending up some tea?” The others laugh at this, but a few minutes later fall silent and quickly go to bed when the tea shows up. Satisfied, the traveler goes to sleep.

In the morning, he awakes to find police hustling the other guests out of the room. As the last one closes the door, he says “You’re lucky, comrade – the sergeant liked your joke.”