At a border station

One man was going to France on a business trip. He went to the booking-office to book a seat for the train to Paris. There were trains daily and the man booked a seat for the morning train.

The next morning the man arrived at the station and got into a train. Soon the train started off. It ran to the schedule and some hours later stopped at a French border station.
The man together with the other passengers, who were going abroad, went out as he had to register his ticket and passport. Then he filled in a declaration and gave it to the customs official.

Some minutes later the customs official allowed the passengers to take their seats in the train and said that he would inspect their luggage.

The man went into his compartment, opened his suitcases, took many boxes of cigarettes out of them and wanted to put all of them into his pockets. But there were too many boxes. When all his pockets were full of cigarette boxes, he turned to another passenger, who was sitting at the window in the same compartment.

"Will you please take some of these boxes and put them into your pockets?" he asked.
"Why don't you leave them in your suit-cases?"
"Because I don't want to pay duty on them."
"All right," said the passenger at the window, "give them to me. But I must tell you that I shall not return them to you."
"Why?"
"Because I am a French customs official."