When Albert Einstein moved to Princeton, he was mistaken for an electrician because of his unkempt hair. He was then asked to fix the contacts of a light bulb socket.
A natural joker, Einstein played along and did not reveal his true identity until after he had made the repair, thus causing great embarrassment among the staff at the university center. And that was not the first time he had fun playing with role reversals. He had already done it years before when he was not yet very well known.
His theories had just begun to spread around the world (especially after the first experimental confirmation of general relativity, obtained with the observation of a total eclipse of the Sun in 1919), and for this reason he began to receive numerous invitations to give conferences.
However, his image was not yet public knowledge and few were able to recognize him. During one of those trips, while he was driving to a little-known location in the United States, he confided his tiredness to his driver.
The latter (a man who physically resembled Einstein) confided in him: “I’ve heard you speak so many times sir, I bet I can replace you without anyone noticing.” The father of relativity hesitated for a moment but then immediately accepted the proposal, thinking that as an idea it was not a bad one.
When they arrived at the conference venue, Einstein let the driver go ahead and sat in the last seats, at the back of the large hall. Everything went wonderfully that no one noticed the formidable set-up and the driver did very well, even answering some rather technical questions.
Until someone in the audience, a rather self-important university professor, stood up and asked a tricky question (about physics of antiparticles).
The real Einstein moved to confess to the audience about the scam – convinced that his American driver would not be able to answer.
But the driver, after a few seconds said: “I am surprised at you, Professor, the answer to your question is so easy that even my driver sitting over there could give it… and in fact he will give it.” Einstein rushed to answer and when they were out of the room he laughed out loud with the driver, complimenting him on his truly brilliant idea.