Read at 14:03, answered sometime next century

The message was read. The little indicator testified. Three geological eras later, the reply remains under review.

Why this tiny offence gets expensive

Read receipts transformed ordinary delay into visible suspense. Of course people get busy; the petty offence begins when instant replies are demanded from everyone else but never returned.

Friendships survive a lot, including habits that would get a stranger muted within minutes. A mock invoice is useful precisely because it turns irritation into a joke instead of a summit meeting.

The completely unofficial accounting view

Petty Invoice values the offence at €15.00. The calculation is not economics, law or accounting; it is the ancient discipline of turning irritation into a number with two decimal places.

The charge description reads: Processing fee for a message visibly received and subsequently detained by an unknown committee.

Recommended administrative response

Charge a processing fee for the application currently trapped in committee.

The point is the contrast: a familiar little annoyance gets treated with the solemn paperwork of a finance department. The more disproportionate the bureaucracy, the better the joke.