Mr. Quarter Past is the name people give to the man who asks the time. He is tall and thin, and he wears a gray three-piece suit, a gray hat and a watch chain across his vest. He carries a pocket watch he never looks at. His eyes are so pale they hardly have a color, and his shoes make no sound on a marble floor.
He finds people who are alone, late at night, in train stations, bus depots and empty streets. He steps out from beside a pillar and says, very politely, “Excuse me. Would you be so kind as to tell me the time?”
The Rules of the Man Who Asks the Time
- Never tell him the time.
- If you tell him, someone will knock on your door every night at that exact minute. Once the first night. Twice the second. One more knock every night after that.
- Nobody knows the final number. When the knocks reach it, you open the door. You cannot help it. He is standing there, and he says, “It’s time.”
- If you cannot avoid him, lie. Give him a time when you would be awake anyway. The knocks will come at the wrong time, on a night when you are ready.
- Moving does not help. The knocks follow you.
Why They Call Him Mr. Quarter Past
The people who lie to him almost always pick a time a quarter past the hour. 3:15. 1:15. 4:15. It comes out without thinking, the way a wrong answer does when you are scared. So the people who count his knocks started calling him Mr. Quarter Past. He seems to know the trick. He smiles when he hears it.
Every Story About the Man in the Gray Suit
These are the accounts we have collected, oldest first. Each one stands on its own.
Never Tell the Man in the Gray Suit What Time It IsSome of the creepiest urban legends have nothing in them that sounds scary when you say it out loud. In Baltimore, the one my grandfather told me is about a…
Have You Met Him?
If a man in a gray suit ever asked you the time, tell us what you said in the comments. And if you hear knocking tonight, count.