Who needs a microwave when you've got a washing machine?

So the tendency for one to try cheating a system comes after we have grown familiar with the mechanisms of it. There is hardly any difference even when faced with the de rigueurs of army life. After the first few weeks of BMT, our self-declared 'Best Bunk' decided that the army wasn't feeding us right and thus proceeded to commence our after-bedtime suppers.

The range of food was expansive and we kept all of it in this particular cupboard near the door. On hindsight, I think this seemingly foolish act stemmed from the Chinese saying, "The most dangerous place is the safest place." Also, thinking back, it never fails to amaze me how 12 smart chaps could, for a second, think that a metal cupboard was airtight.

So anyway, we decided one particular night that we were going to have cup noodles but as anyone knows, it wasn't going to be easy getting past the sharp-ears-eagle-eyes of our instructors. Of course, being month-old soldiers, we weren't that lousy either and established that we were well-trained enough to stage a blitzkrieg to the hot water dispenser...for hot water.

What ensued was a half-standing, half-crawling dash to the dispenser with some of us acting as lookouts for the rest. In all, it was a fairly successful mission and after a tenuous 5 min, we were all in our toilet haven waiting for our noodles to get cooked. You would have assumed that the worst was over, right?

WRONG!!

Suddenly, word was going round that a certain Sgt Haresh was out and about doing his rounds and a mad scurry to dump our goods followed. Some managed to throw the offending evidence into the bin and others down the toilet but some genius had the idea to "put it inside the washing machine so we could eat it later..."

That was brilliant and not wanting to let our precious civilian food go to waste, we proceeded to leave the still-cooking cups of noodles in the washing machine and galloped back (still in the silly half-crouch, half-crawl position) to our beds.

However, we didn't count on Sgt Haresh's determination to catch his weaselly subjects and he went on to conduct a very thorough sentry duty outside our rooms, so much so that we all fell asleep in the end.

Hopefully, this will shed some light on why some poor bugger with the innocent intention of washing his clothes, found instead several dehydrated and noxious smelling cup noodles the next day.