Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-03-08
CAN YOU FIND THIS BALANCED
It Is a Pretty Little Problem Over
 Which Experts Disagree

One of my customers, says a writer in the Business Man s Magazine, is . 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. l had just fin ished writing up my cash book, and had ruled it of and brought down the bal ance on the debit side.
 He said he wanted to pay something on account, but that it must be entered on that day, and not on the next. To humor him Gas l needed the money) agreed to scratch out my figures and lines and to enter his payment that day.
 He started by asking me what bal ance l had on hand, and, rather than have a row with an insane man, I 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 pe- culiarities; and he said that if any number that was exactly divisible by three should be subtracted from the quotient he had obtained by dividing my cash balance by three the remainder would also be exactly divisible by three
 For instance, ss.70 was exactly divisi. ble by three. So, having divided my balance by three, he subtraeted $s.70 from the quotient; and he showed me that the remainder could be divided by three.
 He then remarked that he was going and so he multiplied the remainder as and SC he multiplied the remainder as above mentioned by itself, and gave me his check for an amount equal to that product He then took out of his pocket Ia check that he had received for S406.26 and indorsed that over to me.
 l 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 erased from my cash book, when something hap pened. l found out afterward that the lunatie had been taken with violent frenzy and had suddenly struck me 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 well as every cent from the cash draw CT.
 Even worse than that, he had torn up my cash book and thrown it into the open grate, where nothing remained of it but bunch of ashes and a few eharred einders. 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 few items. The figures brought forward had been burned of and as 1 had scratched out the balance Gin red) and the sum Gin black), l had no record of what my balance was, and I could not and I cannot remember it.
 But | recollect his peculiar way: He divided my old balance by three, and from the quotient so obtained he sub traeted s8.70. The remainder he multi piled by itself and he then gave me, besides, cheek for $406.26, and I no ticed that, after I should make these entries, my cash balance would be just ten times my old balance.
 l have had two expert accountants figure at this thing, but their calcula- tions of my original balance do not agree. There is nearly $20 difference between them.