Similar to another communist joke from ex Yugoslavia:

A worker is waiting in a huge line at 4am to buy cooking oil. Discouraged by how long the line is, he whispers to the guy ahead, "Hey, I heard the general store got a shipment of detergent!" People overhear this and everybody scrambles to the general store, leaving him at the head of the line.

He thinks, "wait, what if the general store did get detergent?" and heads over himself.