just happened to be:

Just happened to be in the Sudanese Ministry of Unnecessary Bureaucracy and Superfluous Paperwork. I had gone there to pick up the exit visa required by all foreigners who had been in Sudan for over six months and wished to leave the country. The combination of Ramadan in the hot season and fast-induced torpor meant little impression was being made on the lengthy queue of people waiting to be attended at the single desk.

In my few days at the ministry I had got to know both Ismael, who worked at the desk, and the other fifty or so people whose jobs did not involve dealing with the public. To my dismay, when my turn came to collect the visa, Ismael told me he couldn’t find my passport anywhere. I leaned over the table and implored him to look again and in so doing moved the desk slightly. One of the table legs was shorter than the others and so an in-house wobbliness compensation system had been devised to stop the desk from moving. The reliability of the system had just been undone. Ismael looked down to sort it out and found a pile of passports.