The good soldier Josef Švejk, created by the imagination of the Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek, is one of the most iconic characters in world literature of the 20th century: a character who elevated malicious compliance to an absolute level, and thus was able to survive the crazy turbulence of the first quarter of the last century.
Švejk always defiantly complied with all, even the most weird-looking demands of government officials - and it seems to me that he would have approved of this story in the Malicious Compliance community (well, where else?) on Reddit, from a woman who once also took an interrogation by an overly picky policeman to the point of absurdity. However, let's talk about everything in order...
The author of the post once was driving home from her trip to a natural park and was stopped by a police officer
Image credits: zana pq (not the actual photo)
The officer asked the woman to do the alcohol test and then even demanded she do the substance test as well
Image credits: [deleted]
The officer kept on interrogating the author, so she decided to use malicious compliance here
Image credits: Erik Mclean (not the actual photo)
Image credits: [deleted]
She started telling a long story about her journey, describing trees, birds and whatnot - and finally the cop just let her go
The Original Poster (OP) says that a few years ago, when she was younger, she would visit natural parks. And so, during one of her trips, when the woman was driving home, a police officer stopped her on the road and asked her to undergo an alcohol test. Of course, the author politely agreed, but something in her behavior apparently seemed strange to the policeman - and he asked her for a further substance test and started interrogating her.
The OP kept on answering all questions just as politely and patiently, but the officer did not stop the interrogation, asking where she was coming from, what she was doing in the park and whatnot. At some point, the woman’s patience snapped, and she... no, not yelled at the cop, but on the contrary, just imagined that she was chatting with one of her colleagues, and began telling her story in the most cordial and enthusiastic tone.
The author gladly described all the beauties of nature, recounted in detail her entire route to the surprised policeman, and in addition, willingly shared what birds and animals she saw along the way. This was followed by an equally detailed story about the road, gasoline prices, parking along the road... The policeman listened to everything just as carefully.
At some point, he apparently realized that the interrogation had turned into some kind of absurd spectacle, because he asked the original poster to stop, after which he returned her documents and allowed her to move on. Of course, after the drug test came back clear. Perhaps 'some cops would have gotten more angry by this behavior,' the author of the post admits, but in this case this tactic worked just perfectly!
Image credits: Kindel Media (not the actual photo)
Many people in the comments, as it turns out, have also encountered police officers in similar situations, and also resorted to such tricks. At least, many similar stories were cited in the comments - all from different decades, so this trick works invariably, almost always and almost everywhere.
And judging by the reactions of commenters, this behavior works not only when communicating with police officers, but also with other officials, and even business representatives. "This reminds me of someone using the strategy of putting their 4-year-old on the phone to get rid of a telemarketer," someone wrote in the comments.
Of course, this story is in no way a call to sabotage the work of various officials, but if the situation really takes on the features of a stupid confrontation, such reductio ad absurdum may well work. After all, as the good soldier Švejk once said: “If you wish, Your Grace, that I confess, then I will confess. It will not harm me. But if you say: 'Švejk, don’t confess to anything,' I will twist until I'm torn apart."
And what else definitely won’t hurt any of us is your exciting comments, both about this story, and, perhaps, your own tales based on your experience. So please feel free to share everything below this post, and let us have the pleasure to read and discuss it all too.
Turns out, such cases are rather common - especially since people in the comments shared lots of similar stories themselves
Image credits: Matthias Cooper (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Gabriel Hohol (not the actual photo)
