Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-06-13
CAN YOU FIND THIS BALANCE P
n IL Pretty little Problem over which
Experts Disagree.

Tt is Pretty little Problem over which
Experts Disagree.
One Of my customers, says a writer
in the Business Mans Magazine, is a
man who has lucid intervals most Of
the time, but has occasional paroxysms
of insanity.
Ono 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 ana brought down the bal
ance on the debit side.
lie said he wanted to pay something
on account, but that 10 must be en-
tered on that day. and not on the next.
To humor him (as needed the money!
l agreed TO scratch out my figures and
lines and 60 enter his payment that
day.
lie started by asking me what bal
ance / had on hand, and, rather than
have row with an insane man, ! read
the figures TO him. lie wrote them on
a scrap of paper and divided the
amount by three
lie then said that he could divide
any number 10y three that had certain
peculiarities; and he said that IL any
number that was exactly divisible by
Quotient he had obtained by dividing
my cash balance by three the remain
der would also be exactly divisible 10y
three.
For instance, ss. 20 was exactly di.
visible by three. So, having divided
my balance by three, he snbtracted
$50 from the quotient; and he showed
me that the remainder could be divided
by three.
He then remarked that he was goinl
to pay me a whole lot more than that,
and so he multiplied the remainder
above mentioned by itself, and gave
me his check for an amount equal tC
that product. lie then took out ol
his pocket check that he had received
for SiO6. 26 and indorsed that over e
me.
| / now noticed that my new balance
after entering these receipts, would bl
exactly ten times my original balance
started IN TO make my entries, anS
had proceeded only so far as TO get thi
old balance and the lines erased from
my cash book, when something hap
| pened. ! found out afterward that thl
lunatic had been taken with a violen
frenzy and had suddenly struck me I
terrific blow on the side of my head.
When 1 recovered consciousness thi
crazy man had disappeared. He ha,
taken the checks he had given me, Al
we'll as every cent from the oasl
drawer.
Even worse than that, he had tori
up my cash book and thrown 10 int
the open CRATE, where nothing remained
of IL but a bunch of ashes and fey
charred cinders. Absolutely the onl
fragment that remained of it was tn
credit side of that last days work
which lay on the floor near the fire
place.
This contained only few items
The figures brought forward had beei
burned of and as had scratched on
the balance (in red) and the sum (ii
black, / had no record Of what m
balance was, and could not and
cannot remember 10.
But / recollectt his peculiar way
He divided my old balance by three
and from the quotient so obtained b
subtracted sS.1U. The remainder h
multiplied by itself and he then CAV
me, besides, check for S406 26, and
noticed that, after / should n ak
these entries, my new cash halanc
would be just ten times my old bal
I ance.
have had two expert accountant
, | figure at this thing, but their calculr
tions OF my original balance do nC
4 agree. There is nearly go diiierenC
= between them.