Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-16
It is a Pretty Little Problem Over
Which Experts Disagree.

From the Business Mans Magazine.
One of my customers is a man who has
lucid intervals most of the time, but has
occasional paroxysms of insanity
One afternoon about two weeks ago, he
came into my office after everybody else
had gone home. 1 had just finished writing
up my cash book. and had ruled it off and
brought down the balance on the debit side.
He said he wanted to pay something on
account, but that 1t must be entered on that
day, and not on the next. To humor him
Gas I needed the money! I agreed to scratch
out my figures and lines and to enter his
payment that day.
He started by asking me what balance
had on hand and, rather than have row
with an insane man. read the figures to
him. He wrote them on a scrap of paper
and divided the amount by three.
He then said that he could divide any
number by three that had certain peculi-
arities; and he said that If any number that
was exctly Invisible by three should be sub
tracted from the quotient he had obtained
by dividing my cash balance by three the
remainder would also be exactly Invisible
by three
For instance $50 was exactly divisibIe
by three. So, having divided my balance
by three he subtracted $50 from the quo
tent; and he showed me that the remainder
could be divided by three.
He then remarked that he going to
pay me whole lot more than that, and so
he multiplied the remainder above men
toned by itself. and gave me his check for
amount equal to that product. He then
took out of his pocket check that he had
received for S40G % and Endorsed that over
to me.
] now noticed that my new balance, after
entering these receipts, would be exactly
ten times my original balance.
i started in to make my entries. and had
proceeded only so far as to get the Old bal
ance and the lines erased from my cash
book, when something happened. / found,
out afterward that the lunatic had been
taken with violent frenzy, and had sud-
denly struck me terrific blow on the side
of my head.
When 1 recovered consciousness the crazy
man had disappeared. He had taken the
checks he had given me, well as every
cent from the cash drawer.
Even worse than that, he had torn up
my cash book and thrown it into the open
CRATE, where nothing remained of 1t but
bunch of ashes and few charred cinders.
Absolutely the only fragment that remained
of it was the credit side of that last days
work, which lay on the floor near the fire.
place.
This contained only a few items. The fig
ures brought forward had been burned off,
and as l had scratched out the balance Gin
red) and the sum Tin black, had no record
of what my balance was, and L could not
and / cannot remember it.
But recollect his peculiar way: He divid-
ed my old balance by three, and from the
quotient so obtained he subtracted $50.
The remainder he multiplied by itself and
he then gave me, besides a check for $4U5.zj
and 1 noticed that, after / should make
these entries. my new cash balance would
be just ten times my old balance.
! have had two expert accountants figure
at this thing, but their calculations of my
original balance do not agree. There Is
nearly $50 difference between them.