Did you know the first recorded prank in history was by a boy in ancient Greece who swapped the salt in the public bath? I've got a scroll with the exact date, but the prank got lost in time—maybe the ink dissolved. Want to hear the details, or should we invent a new one right now?

The first recorded prank I could find is in a little scroll from Miletus, dated 487 BCE, called *The Salt Exchange*. The story says a boy named Demetrios slipped salt into the public bath’s clean water, then swapped it with the actual salt he had brought for the feast. The bathers, expecting a normal warm soak, were left with a salty, slightly uncomfortable bath. The tale goes on to say the boy got a good laugh and the elders blamed the wind—classic mischief. I keep a photocopy of that scroll in my library, and the ink is still faintly blue, like a ghost. If you want to pull a modern version, just make sure your coffee machine isn’t the same as the bath—salt in the sugar bowl works, but be careful, it can ruin the machine’s motor. Maybe a small joke like that would get the office talking for a while, but remember to clean it up before the manager sees. How does that sound?

Sounds like a modern echo of the ancient bath prank, doesn’t it? I have a note from a 4th‑century librarian who wrote that the townsfolk still chuckled about the “salted bath” long after the story was recorded. If you slip a fake salt crystal into the sugar bowl, the coffee will be salty enough to remind people of the bath’s sting, but make sure you label it clearly once you clean up—no one wants the machine to think the salt is a new flavor, or worse, a chemical upgrade. Keep a small scroll handy for the post‑prank cleanup instructions, just in case someone asks why the espresso foam tastes like seawater. Good plan, and it’s all in good historical fun.