Often, when I am reading a good book, I stop and thank my teacher. That is, I used to, until she got an unlisted number.

Often circulated as an anonymous, contemporary one-liner in quotation collections and classroom humor, this quip plays on the sentimental convention of crediting a beloved teacher for one’s love of reading. Its punchline depends on a now-dated detail—an “unlisted number,” i.e., a private telephone listing—suggesting late-20th-century North American phone culture. The joke implies the speaker’s gratitude became so frequent or intrusive that the teacher took steps to avoid being contacted, turning earnest appreciation into comic overfamiliarity. Because it is widely reproduced without attribution, it is best treated as a piece of anonymous epigrammatic humor rather than a traceable remark from a specific person or event.

The line satirizes the ritual of attributing personal success to inspirational educators. The first sentence sets up a sincere, almost pious gratitude: the reader pauses mid-book to thank the teacher who taught them to read well or to love literature. The reversal—“until she got an unlisted number”—suggests that gratitude, when performed compulsively or without boundaries, can become burdensome. It also gently mocks the speaker’s self-centeredness: the teacher’s privacy matters more than the speaker’s need to express thanks on demand. As a compact epigram, it balances genuine respect for teaching with a comic reminder that appreciation should be proportionate and considerate.