What Content Writers Can Learn From The Wedding Suit

A very short story on communications and clarity of instructions

A short story on instructions.

Burro’s friend Oselo was about to get married.

However, Oselo didn’t have a suit, so he borrowed Burro’s only decent suit.

The day before the wedding, Burro was at Oselo’s home welcoming the guests.

Most guests would ask, “Hey Burro, where’s Oselo?”

And Burro would answer: “Oh, he’s in his room. And he’s going to wear my suit tomorrow for his wedding.”

Soon, Oselo learned what Burro was saying.

So he called Burro to his room and said angrily, “Burro! Not a word about your suit! I find it so embarrassing!”

Burro nodded and went back to welcoming the guests.

Soon, the next guest arrived and asked, “Hey Burro, where’s Oselo?”

Burro kept a straight face and said. “Oh, he’s in his room. But I’m not going to tell you a word about the suit he’s going to wear tomorrow.”

Lessons for content writers and their clients:

Lesson 1: You can talk about a product by not talking about the product too. Remember the surrogate advertising of alcohol in India?

Lesson 2: A client, especially a new one, needs to pass on instructions *very* carefully. Otherwise, the content writer is likely to mess up somewhere.

Lesson 3: A lender often charges a payback in strange ways. (Be careful, do not plagiarize.)

(Source: A joke from Padmashree Shahbuddin Rathod. Lessons: Mine. Image: Undraw. Originally published on LinkedIn).

Note: Burro is an entirely fictional character. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is coincidental and unintended.

Almost always, my Burro stories are based on jokes that I have heard/read. I try to learn and share the lessons behind the humour. My favorite number is three, so I create three lessons.