"We received reports of building being done at night here. That’s against the rules”

Bang-bang-bang!

Eli, of Eli’s animal center, was building a succah. The animals raised their heads. They listened to the strange sounds.

Soon the succah was almost ready. Eli was pleased.

Suddenly, a ruckus was heard at the entrance gate. Eli and his helpers hurried over to see what was going on.

Uh-oh. Mr. Ingleton was at the gate. He was the environmental inspector. He looked grim.

“How can I help you, sir?” Eli asked. He was polite. But he didn’t open the gate. The inspector wasn’t allowed to inspect without notice.

“I’m here with a closure order,” replied Mr. Ingleton. He waved an official-looking paper. “This requires your center to close within 48 hours.” He couldn’t hide a smile. The inspector hated Eli’s place. He had been trying to close it down for years. Trouble was, the center was so well run, he’d never managed it.

“B-but why?” asked Eli in shock. “We’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Aha! That’s what you say. However, we received reports of building being done at night here. That’s against the rules.”

Eli was stunned.

“But that’s impossible!” he cried. “We haven’t done any building at night.”

Mr. Ingleton shuffled his papers.

“Well, I have a record here of a complaint, received at midnight. It was from a neighbor. I’ll be back in two days to enforce the closing order.”