The Budget! The minister of finance had her speech; I have my memories ...

A third of my government translation career was spent with the Ministère des Communications; the office to which I was attached was invariably entrusted with translating the budget speech and accompanying documents.

It was standard operating procedure for the team assigned to translate this lot to be moved to the Finance building; something about more secure security. We weren’t locked in our offices, but we did have to check in and check out with the constable on duty at the door. He or she would examine the contents of our briefcases, and woe betide anyone who even inadvertently brought so much as a comma into the sunlight from the above-mentioned papers.

A colleague of mine was one of those people who can talk anyone up. In time she was talking the constables so far up that in her case they would waive briefcase inspection.

Which happened one night.

Colleague got home, saw to a few homecoming chores, casually opened her briefcase ...

And had considerable difficulty in believing what she saw:

There, on the floor of the briefcase, the ultra-confidential, as-yet-untranslated text of the budget speech!
Briefcase inspection was also waived for her speedy return to Finance ... and no one was ever the wiser.