Pretend you are walking through a marketplace and you see a crowd of people around a great Wiseman. As you walk up to the crowd, you hear the Wiseman hold out something in his hands and exclaim, “Behold this magic box! Every 15 minutes, the box will reveal a prize for whomever is holding the box; sometimes a treasure, sometimes not. But until the 15 minutes have passed, only I can see the contents of the box.”
At that point, the great wise man opens the box, peers inside and exclaims, “It’s a diamond!” and hands the box to a man in the crowd. This begins a great fervor in the crowd and one person shouts, “I will pay you $100 for the box!” The man considers the offer and trades the box for $100. After a minute has passed, the wise man asks the man for the box, peeks inside and hands it back and as each minute passes, the wise man repeats his observation of the contents. You begin to get excited as well and say to yourself, “A diamond is worth much more than $100!” You ask the Wiseman, “What does the diamond look like? How big is it?” and the wise man replies, “I have made my statement and will speak no further until the 15 minutes are up.”
You count all of the money that you have in your pockets and shout to the man holding the box, “I will pay you $180 for the box!” The man thinks hard about your offer and eventually agrees. As you hold the hold in excited anticipation, you watch closely as the great wise man continues to check the contents every minute. Finally, the 15 minutes are over and wise man says, “You may now see the contents.” You open the box and are shocked to see that the box is filled with buffalo poop. The crowd lets out a disappointed gasp.
The wise man takes back the box and states again, “Behold this magic box! Every 15 minutes, the box will reveal a prize for whomever is holding the box; sometimes a treasure, sometimes not. But until the 15 minutes have passed, only I can see the contents of the box.” The wise man opens the box, peers inside and exclaims, “It’s a diamond!” and hands the box back to you. The crowd begins dispersing, convinced the wise man is actually a charlatan. You are now sad and broke so you ask the few remaining if anyone would like to buy the box. After a period of silence, one man says, “I will give you 25 cents for the box.” Having no other choice, you take the quarter and walk away.
As the years pass, when you are in the marketplace, you occasionally see the Wiseman with his box. Once you heard that someone actually did get a diamond, but no one has ever paid $180 for the box again. Your only consolation is to warn everyone you meet to not get tricked into playing the wise man’s game.
Thanks to Troy Ussery of B2i Technologies for this anecdote.
