Da jeg var liten fortalte min far oss en gåte som jeg aldri klarte å finne svaret på. Gåten var av en slik art at man kunne bli gal av å tenke på den, fordi den på mange måter var litt magisk. Man fikk alle fakta servert på bordet, og løsningen burde være enkel, men likevel var det noe som ikke stemte. Man starter i den ene enden, og uansett hvor nye man følger tråden i historien, så ender man opp som et spørsmålstegn.
I voksen alder har jeg støtt på samme gåten på nytt, i ulike varianter. Jeg har en variant av gåten rammet inn og plassert på en hylle på toalettet, slik at gjester blir stående og gruble mens de gjør sitt fornødne. (Idéen var min ekskones.)
Lesere av denne bloggen vil sikkert sette pris på gåten, så her kommer enda en variant:
The Thompson triplets were sitting around watching television. The reception was so bad that they decided to throw away their TV and go buy a new one. They checked their wallets and found that they only had $10 each. So they took their $30 to a second hand store.
They met a salesman who told them he had a TV for sale for $30. So they gave him $30 and took the TV.
However, when the salesman went in the back of the store he realized that the price was supposed to be $25. So he ran back outside to give them their $5 back. But when he realized they had each paid $10 he didn't want to make it confusing so he only gave them $1 back each and he kept the other two dollars for himself.
OK, let's recap. They paid $10 each which is $30 total. The salesman gave them back $1 each and he kept $2 for himself. So they actually spent $10 each minus $1 each. Which means they spent $9 each. 9 X 3 = $27, The salesman kept $2. That's a total of $29.
Where's the other dollar?