This is hidden brain.
Im Shankar Vedantam.
In 2009, british businessman Philip Davison Sebri was celebrating his wifes 50th birthday in the Maldives when he got a phone call.
The caller asked for a business meeting the next day at 08:00 a.m.
philip explained that that would be a little difficult, seeing as he was 4500 miles away from work on vacation.
What are you doing away at a time like this?
The voice at the other end of the line shouted.
Your company is in liquidation.
Philip thought it was a joke in poor taste.
In an interview with Wales Online, he recalled that the caller assured him that it was no joking matter.
Heres what happened.
A british government agency had reported the demise of Philips one three four year old engineering company, Taylor and Sons.
The government agency, known as Companies House, serves as a kind of registrar for british businesses.
It said that Taylor and Sons, created in 1875, was being shut down.
Turns out a government clerk had made a typo.
The company that was going out of business was Taylor and son in Manchester, not Taylor and sons in Wales.
Philip felt sick.
His company had been doing well.
It had some 250 employees within days, he later said.
In that interview with Wales Online, his contracts dried up.