English is a funny language

A particular incident happened in Air Force some years ago, between an Officer and a Non-combatant member. This Non-combatant member worked as an orderly for the Officer, at the workplace. One day the Orderly arrived late for Office. He was sure going to get an earful from his boss. When the Boss saw his orderly coming late to office, he burst out in English. The Orderly replied in chaste Hindi, that he had some urgent work at home and hence he was late.

The Boss wasnt impressed, and his shouting continued. After a while the boss cooled down and continued in undiluted English that he shouldnt repeat this in future. And he also added something along these lines as a final warning "Tomorrow you shouldn't dare come to office late, you can go now."

The orderly hardly understood any english. He understood some words though. To clear his doubt, he asked a Corporal standing besides, as to what the officer had barked till now. The Corporal explained that the Officer was furious, but then he cooled down because the orderly was a good worker. The final sentence of the Officer was translated thus by the Corporal "Tomorrow you can come late to Office, and since u have a pending work at home, you can go now".

The Orderly was happy to hear this. He understood some words that the officer told though, which included "TOMORROW, COME, OFFICE, LATE, GO, NOW". He thanked the Corporal and immediately left for home. The next day the Orderly turned up about 2 hrs late. The Boss was ready to explode any moment, since his orderly didnt reach office in time.

Finally, when the Orderly arrived, the Officer shouted in Hindi, and asked him how dare he come again late, and also why he had left as soon as he came the previous day, despite his stern warning. The poor orderly found that he was fooled by the Corporal, but to save the Corporal he said he didnt understand English and he had misunderstood whatever the boss had told him. The Boss didnt have anything much to say and the orderly was left free.