Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-01
CAN YOU FIND THIS BALANcE7
II Is a Pretty Little Problem Over
Which Experts Disagree.

One of my customers, says writer
in the Business Mans Magazine, is a
man who has lucid intervals most of
the time, but has occasional parox-
ysms of insanity.
One afternoon, about two weeks
ago. he came into my office after ev-
erybody else had gone home. / 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 some
thing on account, but that 1t must be
entered 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 to enter his pay
ment that day.
He started by asking me what bal
ance l had on hand and, rather than
have a row with an insane man. read
the figures to him. He wrote them on
a scrap of paper and divided the
amount by three.
any number by three that had certain
peculiarities; and he said that if any
number was exactly divisible by three
should be subtracted from the quo
tient he had obtained by dividing my
cash balance by three the remainder
would also be exactly divisible by
three.
For instance, $3.50 was exactly d.
visible by three. So, having divided
my balance by three, he subtracted
$50 from the quotient; and he show
ed me that the remainder could be di-
vided by three.
He then remarked that he was 60
ing to pay me a whole lot more than
that, and so he multiplied the re-
mainder above mentioned by itself
and gave me a check for an amount
equal to that product. He then took
out of his pocket a check that he had
received for $406.26 and indorsed that
over to me.
now noticed that my new balance,
after entering these receipts, would be
exactly ten times my original balance
l started in to make my entries,
and had proceeded only so far as to
get the old balance and the lines eras-
ed from my cash book. when some
thing happened. l found out after
wards that the lunatic had been taken
with a violent frenzy and had sudden
ly struck me a terrific blow on the
side Of my head.
When l recovered consciousness the
crazy man had disappeared. He had
taken the checks he had given me, as
we'll as every cent from the cash
drawer.
Even worse than that, he had torn
up my cash book and thrown ii into
the open CRATE. where nothing re-
manned of it but bunch of ashes and
few charred cinders. Absolutely the
only fragment that remained of it was
the credit side of the last days work
which lay on the floor near the fire
place.
This contained only a few items.
The figures brought forward had been
burned off and as l had scratched out
the balance lin red) and the sum Gn
black, had no record of what my
balance was, and l could not and can
not remember it.
But l recollect his peculiar way: He
divided my whole 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 $406.26, and
| noticed that. after | should make
these entries, my new cash balance
would be just ten times my old bal
ance.
have had two expert accountants
figure at this thing, but their calcula-
tions of my original balance do not
agree. There is nearly $50 difference
between them.