Somebody was the funniest person at a small company for nine years
and dreaded every appraisal, certain that the moment anyone looked at the actual work
the whole arrangement would come down.

They were made a partner in the tenth year.
The letter listed three reasons. The jokes were not among them.
Neither was the thing they had been hiding, because there had never been one.

They had been good the entire time and had never once let anybody check.

The Book of the Bard — Return 54:8