Sasson: Once, sitting and drinking with my friends in Hamburg, I got in the mood for a little prank. I said, “Let’s call our friend Iradj Sameyeh and pull some joke on him!”
I called him and said in German with my best accent: “Mr. Sameyeh?” “Jawohl,” he replied.
“My name is Mr. Müller, and I’ve heard you have very good hand-woven carpets in your warehouse. I’m interested in them, and would like to come and see your goods. I’m staying in the Europäicher Hof hotel near the central station. Can you come and pick me up?”
“Of course, I’m coming right away!” he said in a panicked voice.
Just to give him an opportunity to realize it’s not serious, I told him: “If you come to the hotel, and I am not in my room, my beautiful secretary will take care of you.”
I hung up, before I burst into laughter.
A few minutes later I felt bad for having gotten his hopes high, and for getting him to leave home at night for nothing. I tried to call him again, but the phone was constantly busy.
Poor Sameyeh tried to call the hotel a few times, and not getting any results, decided to go to the hotel himself. Of course, I apologized, and he accepted my apology.
A while later, he got a call again, with a customer asking him to pick him up from the hotel. This time Mr. Sameyeh’s response was a few juicy curses in Persian.
“What did you say? I didn’t understand a word,” said the real customer on the other side.
Mr. Sameyeh was embarrassed, but thought fast and found a great solution: “Let me get my father.”
And with a change of voice, he talked to the customer, picked him up at the hotel and closed the deal.
This kind of prank call spread like virus between us and our friends in the carpet trade in Hamburg. To such an extent that one of our friends once called the local burial society, and said “Mr. Mehdi Bolour, resident of… passed away. Please come and take his body.”
You can imagine Mr. Bolour’s surprise, and the terror of the burial society guys, when he opened the door for them!
That was the epitome of our prank calls. Mr. Bolour is still alive and successful in Los Angeles. I wish him many more happy and healthy years.
No joy in the world can ever transcend
The joy of seeing the face of a friend
No sorrow is bitterer to the human heart
Than being with friends and then having to part.
(Rudaki)
ﻫﯿﭻ ﺷﺎدی ﻧﯿﺴﺖ اﻧﺪر اﯾﻦ ﺟﻬﺎن
ﺑﺮﺗﺮ از دﯾﺪار روی دوﺳﺘﺎن
ﻫﯿﭻ ﺗﻠﺨﯽ ﻧﯿﺴﺖ ﺑﺮ دل ﺗﻠﺦ ﺗﺮ
از ﻓﺮاق دوﺳﺘﺎن ﭘﺮ ﻫﻨﺮ
(رودﮐﯽ)