A man walks into a bar. He asks the bartender for three triple whiskies. The bartender pours the drinks and the man sits and drinks them and then leaves.
A few days later the man returns. ‘Three triple whiskies, please’, he requests.
The bartender pours the drinks and his curiosity gets the better of him.
‘Excuse me,’ he asks. ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking but why do you order three drinks at once instead of one at a time like everybody else?’
The man replied: ‘It’s like this – I’ve got two brothers that live abroad and we made a pact that whenever one of us has a drink they have a drink for the absent brother. That way we feel closer.’
‘Oh, that’s really nice,’ the bartender said with a grin.
The man became a regular and always ordered his three triple whiskies and all was right with the world.
Then one day he went into the bar looking gloomy. He went up to the bartender – ‘Two triple whiskies, please.’
The bartender froze.
He poured the drinks while his thoughts churned.
‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking but something hasn’t happened to one of your brothers has it?’
‘No,’ the man replied. ‘It’s me. I’ve given up drinking.’