Setting: A small but cozy apartment in Saint Petersburg. Snow taps lightly at the window. Misha and Ilya, two friends in their early thirties, are sipping tea after a gym session.
Misha: (snatching the towel from Ilya’s hands) Hey! Don’t use my towel!
Ilya: (startled) Whoa, relax! I just touched it for a second. Mine fell on the floor.
Misha: Doesn’t matter! If we both use the same towel, we’re guaranteed to have a big fight. That’s how Lena and her cousin stopped talking for a year. One towel — boom! Family drama.
Ilya: [laughing] Seriously? You think cotton fabric holds grudges?
Misha: Don’t mock me, Ilya. It’s a real thing. My бабушка warned me about this when I was five. She said towels absorb your energy, and mixing energies invites conflict.
Ilya: By that logic, the laundromat is an energy battlefield. Look, Misha, towels are just… towels. Quarrels happen because of communication problems, not terry cloth sorcery.
Misha: Oh really? Then explain this: Last month, I stayed at my cousin Sasha’s place, and we accidentally used the same towel. Two days later, we had a massive argument over borscht.
Ilya: You argued because you think borscht should be purple and he thinks it should be red. That’s not the towel’s fault. That’s a culinary dispute, not paranormal fabric warfare.
Misha: Coincidence? I think not. My uncle used to say, “Share towels, share tempers.” He divorced twice.
Ilya: Maybe he should have shared a therapist instead. Honestly, Misha, this is like blaming the spoon for soup being cold.
Misha: Easy for you to say — you believe in science and atoms. You trust Wi-Fi but not бабушка.
Ilya: I trust бабушка with food and hugs. But germs and behavioral psychology? Not so much.
Misha: Fine, Professor Logic. Then tell me, how do you explain why things always go wrong after ignoring superstitions? Every time I whistle indoors, something breaks.
Ilya: Confirmation bias. You remember when it goes wrong, but forget the 50 times nothing happened. Like that time you whistled while making pancakes and they turned out fine.
Misha: Because I knocked on wood right after! See? I’m not reckless.
Ilya: Okay, okay. I’ll give you this — rituals give people a sense of control. That’s totally valid. But blaming a towel for tension isn’t exactly productive. Why not just talk about stuff when it annoys you?
Misha: That’s not how Russian households work. We stew silently and hope the towel curse lifts.
Ilya: (laughs) Maybe you should write a horror movie. “The Curse of the Shared Towel.” Tagline: Some stains never wash out.
Misha: Don’t joke — that sounds like a bestseller.
Ilya: How about this — we do an experiment. For a whole week, we share a towel. If we don’t fight, you admit the superstition is bunk.
Misha: Or we end up yelling at each other over tea and ruin our friendship?
Ilya: Then I’ll buy you a dozen new towels. One for each mood swing.
Misha: Hmm. Deal. But if my cat starts acting weird, I’m blaming you.
Ilya: Fair enough. Just don’t give him the towel.
Science Vs Superstition 
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