Lights Out Confusion

On his first night in prison, a new inmate sat nervously on his bunk, watching everything carefully.

An older inmate leaned over and said, Just follow the rules and you’ll be fine.

What rules? the new guy asked.

Lights out at 9 PM, the older inmate said. When the lights go off, everybody goes to sleep.

Simple enough.

That night, at exactly 9 PM, the lights shut off.

Immediately, the new guy jumped up, walked over to the switch by the door, and flipped it back on.

The whole cell block went quiet.

From every direction, voices shouted:

Hey!

Turn that off!

The guard came running down the hallway.

What are you doing? he yelled.

The new inmate pointed at the light.

You said lights out at 9.

The guard stared at him.

Yeah…

The new guy shrugged.

So I turned them back on.