It was a beautiful summer day, and he was sitting peacefully in his living room in front of the open window, reading a book. A quiet weekend was coming up, most of the neighbors were on vacation, and after a busy week at work, he would enjoy the peace.

He had just gotten to the next chapter when he suddenly heard something from afar.

Beep, beep, beep

A beep. At first he was unsure if he hadn't just imagined it, but then again:

Beep, beep, beep

Evenly, always at intervals of 10 seconds, this triple beep.

Beep, beep, beep

He jumped out of the chair and rushed to the window, trying to find out where this annoying noise was coming from.

He listened out into the garden:

Beep, beep, beep

There it is again! It seemed to come from somewhere in the direction of the neighbor's garden, but he was not sure.

With hurried steps he went out of the room, down the stairs to the back door, and....

Beep, beep, beep

He was getting more and more irritated by the just audible beeping. He rushed out into the garden, but again he couldn't figure out what was causing the annoying sound.

Beep, beep, beep

He tried to calm himself, took a deep breath, and then returned to the house.

He turned on some music to drown out the beeping and then he wanted to....

Beep, beep, beep

Aaaargh! He could still hear it, despite the music, faintly but clearly!

He tried to distract himself from it again, played a computer game, tidied up, picked up the vacuum cleaner, did all sorts of things.

Beep, beep, beep

It didn't help. Although barely audible, the noise kept coming back to his ears. Slowly he became aggressive.

Beep, beep, beep

That was it! Enough was enough!

Someone would pay for this disturbance! To ruin his well-deserved rest with such a dastardly act! He would find the one responsible, bring him to justice! His revenge would be terrible! He would torture the perpetrator with something completely different than a beep, all the neighbors would get their punishment because they had done nothing against this disturbance! The whole neighborhood he would burn down if it would restore his peace and quiet!

So he stood at his open window, breathing heavily, staring off into space with an errant gaze, as he slowly became aware of two things.

For one thing, the beeping had stopped. For another, someone was calling him by name. He shook his head in confusion, and then he recognized his neighbor standing under the window.

"The smoke detector battery in the garden shed had been almost dead, hence the beeping," the neighbor said. "I've put a new one in now. Sorry again for the disturbance."

"No problem," he replied to the neighbor, "No harm done."

He went back to the living room and dropped into the armchair. After a moment he had to laugh at himself that such a small thing had infuriated him so much.

Burning down the neighborhood because of a beeping smoke detector. Ha! How exaggerated.

But if it happened again, the stupid detector wouldn't get off so lightly!

And then he read on.