Put the suitcase down

A man on a moving train keeps his luggage on his head. The train is carrying both of you either way.

By Sovandarapor (James) Kong · 2026-08-22 · Nondual

Chapter 07 of 12 in The masters were funny

A man boards a train with a heavy trunk. Instead of putting it on the floor he balances it on his head and stands there sweating. Another passenger asks why. The man says the train is already carrying so much weight, I did not want to add mine to it.

This gets told about half the teachers in India and I have no idea who said it first, which is normal for the good ones. I take it as folk property.

The joke works because the man's mistake is effort. He is trying to help. He has correctly noticed that the train is carrying a load and that his trunk is heavy, and he has drawn a conclusion that changes nothing. The train's axle load is identical either way. All he has bought is a sore neck.

This is where these stories usually get turned into a licence to do nothing, so I want to be careful. The story is about one specific class of effort: holding what is already being held.

The business runs on decisions and deliveries. Those are real. The unreal part is the extra layer I run on top, the low grade managing of outcomes at two in the morning, the mental rehearsal of a conversation happening on Thursday. That is the trunk on the head. The Thursday conversation arrives whether or not I carry it Tuesday and Wednesday.

Existence is happening too. Breathing and ageing do not wait on my approval. Onto that I add a full time job of being the one responsible for being me. The train was always going to carry it.

Nobody in the story says relax, or explains how to put the trunk down. Somebody points at what the man is doing, the sweat starts to look silly, and sometimes that is enough for a stop or two.