The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-27
CAV you FIND THIS BdL4NCEp
II Is . Pretty Little Problem Over which
Experts Disagree.
DOwN AND sen
DOLLARS MONfHtV.


One Of my customers, says a writer in the
BusiEess Mans NdpdEine 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. had Just finished
writing up my cash book, and had ruled it
of and brought down the balance on the
debit side.
He said he wanted to IA something on
account, but that II must be entered on that
day, and not on the next. To humor him
las l needed the moneyl l agreed to scratch
out my figures and lines and TO enter his
payment that day.
He started by asking mt what balance
/ had on hand and, rather than have arrow
with an insane man, I read the figures to him.
He wrote them on a scrap of paper and
divided h amount by three.
He than said that he could divide any
number by three that had certain peculi-
a~rities; and he said that ifany number that
was exactly divisible by three should DO
subtracted from the quotient he had OBJ
tanned by dividing my cash balance by
three the remainder would also he ex-
Rctly divisible by three.
For instance, $50 was exactly divisible
by three. So, having divided my balance
by three, he subtracted $40 from the
quotient; and he showed me that the re-
mainder could be divided by three.
He then remarked that he was going 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 to that product. He then
took out of his pocket a check that he had
received for SOC. 20 and indorsed that, over
to me.
now noticed that my rev balance, after
entering these receipts, would be exactly
ten times my original balance.
started in TO make my entries, and had
proceeded only so far as to get the old
balance and the lines erased from my cash
book, when something happened. l found
out afterward that the lunatic had been
taken with a violent frenzy and had suddenly
struck me a terrific blow on the side Of my
head,
When I recovered consciousness the
crazy mar had disappeared: He had taken
the checks he had given me, az well as every
cent from the cash drawer.
Even worse than that, he had torn up
my cash book and thrown 1t into the open
CRATE, where nothing remained of it but n
bunch Of ashes and a few charred cinders.
Absolutely the only fragment that remained
Of it was the credit side of that last days
place.
This contained only a few items. The
figures brought forward had been burned
off and as / had scratched out the balance
Tin redl and the sum lin black, l had
no record Of what my balance was, and /
could not and ! cannot remember It.
But ! recoilect his peculiar way: He
divided my old balance by three, and from
the q~uotient 10 obtained he subtracted IS. 10.
The remainder he multiplied by itself
and he then gave me, besides, a check for
s4Oe 20, and I noticed that, after l 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 ia
nearly $50 difference between them.I