The cup of tea that always arrived on time

A CUP OF HOT TEA that lived in a household once was very punctual and always showed up on dates at the correct time. Yet the silverware of the household weren’t even half as punctual as him, often leaving him to wait at their everyday meeting at 17:00 as they arrived late.

Things got really bad one day, when many of them arrived half an hour later, whereas the rest arrived at 18:00. "You're so late that my tea is no longer hot for you", the cup complained angrily, as he realized that they wouldn't change their ways no matter what.

Disappointed, he spent his night spinning in his bed and contemplating ways to mend their behavior. So great was his worry, even, that he couldn't fall asleep. When the clock ticked twelve, he saw the mechanical cuckoo coming out of it and letting the well-known sound ka-ka- ka-kow-kow out.

"How come you 're never late?", the cup asked the cuckoo with great curiosity.

"That's because I always observe the clock.", the cuckoo replied and showed the clock hands that pointed at exactly twelve. "See? This means that if someone turns them back an hour, I will have to ring again", the cuckoo added and the cup of tea was challenged to hear it.

Ηe thought of the following trick. The next day, he asked the cuckoo to turn the clock's hands to an hour later, so they showed 17:00 when it would actually be 16:00. Yet he would go to his date at the regular time. So it happened. His trick worked, and the silverware arrived late as usual: others by twenty minutes, others by half an hour, and the rest by almost an hour. As time passed, they wondered whether something bad had happened to their good friend the tea-cup.

When at some point, exactly at five o clock, the tea cup arrived, they got mad and shouted at him. "Well, I am always on time", the cup boasted and pointed outside the window, at the clock hanging from the town hall.

The cuckoo in his turn, then, changed the time on his clock to show the correct one and confirmed that he had intentionally changed it to test them. Realizing they had been tricked, the silverware laughed at their mistake and realized that what "is important is not to be late on dates", as the cuckoo told them.

After apologizing to the tea cup for making him wait, they asked the cuckoo to even move the clock hands to show a few minutes later just to be on the safe side that they would arrive on time on future dates....