# The corpse in the elevator

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-funeral-directors-elevator-corpse
- Themes: death, humour, mistakes, plans
- Life situations: things going wrong, funerals

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Funeral directors collecting a body from a top-floor old apartment find the gurney will not fit the stairs or elevator, so they hold the corpse upright between them. Murphy's Law: the lift stops halfway; an old neighbour sees the 'dead' man standing between two men in black; they lose hold and he falls toward her; she faints; tea revives her.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

there's no way you can get sort of like the the little it was not coffin yet a little um trolley they put the dead person on so strap him in there and just you know to try and take him take him down the stairs but even in the elevator the elevator was too small and he was on the top story so what to do that is it'd be it'd be like some comedy show but this was real life you know real life is much more funny than anything they can invent on the TV so what they did you know they decided well the only thing to do is actually just carry him down ourselves so that they forgot about the trolley that just his two Funeral Directors you know in Black they look pretty sort of weird already and with the dead person in between just holding on to him standing and of course it's one of these though one of these old apartment blocks where everybody knew one another so they knew this guy has died so top story about six stories or something down to the ground floor where the horse was waiting they were praying please nobody pressed the button halfway down but of course there is some law which is even the most powerful law in the whole universe which you can rely upon it's called Murphy's Law it's something can go wrong it does go wrong so the elevator stopped on the third floor halfway down they couldn't do anything about it and when it does open there's this little old lady who'd also lived in the apartment block for a long time and you can imagine what she saw this guy who she knew was dead standing between these two guys in Black and my friend the funeral director he said we don't know how this happened but we lost control of him and he started Falling Towards the old woman she just dropped out what should we do next so they thought they had to say we can do they they grabbed on the guy again and pressed the button and they just hope they didn't have another customer they ran up the stairs afterwards and she was okay she was a bit shocked but you know when it can happen it does happen

## Teaching point

Real life going wrong is funnier — and more human — than anything planned.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Funeral directors carried a corpse upright in a tiny lift; it stopped halfway, a neighbour saw him, and down she went in a faint. Cup of tea, all fine. Ajahn Brahm meant to retire rich by the beach at 65; instead he has no money and still does nothing all day. Plans go wrong. Laugh, and enjoy the real thing.

## Source

- [Life Is A Series Of Unexpected Events | Ajahn Brahm | 3 March 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B30aqzhP5mc) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 3:27 to 5:49: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B30aqzhP5mc&t=207s

Other tellings of this story:

- [How to deal with mistakes | Ajahn Brahm | 10-10-2014](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEojw6wMSs) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 35:47 to 38:23: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEojw6wMSs&t=2147s
- [Different perspective on empathy | Ajahn Brahm | 15 Jul 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ktH395ZY4) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 15:39 to 16:12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ktH395ZY4&t=939s