Well, there was a long flight from Frankfurt to New York. Two guys - mathematician (M) and computer scientist (CS) - were flighing on a conference and sitting together. (M) was quite tired, he had had a quarrel with his girlfriend about devoting most of the time to math and now wanted to relax before his talk on the conference, i.e. to sleep. (CS) was in contrast much more active, his girlfriend was (CS) as him, and thus they almost never had conflicts. So, (CS) wanted to spend time doing something, and not sleeping.
- Hey, MAN! - he said to (M) - let's play a game!
- Listen, I'd love, but I have a headache, and I'd rather sleep.- answered (M).
- Ohhh! Come on buddy! You'll sleep enough in the grave! Let's play, I'll make very attractive rules for you. So, listen. The game is very simple:
. In your turn, you give me a question and I need to answer it. If I don't answer than I'll pay you $50. Otherwise, you'll pay me only $10. See?
. Now, in my turn I'll ask you a question. And if you answer I'll give $50, if not you again pay me ONLY $10.
So, understand?
It was pretty clear that it was impossible to get rid of (CS)'s game, and poor (M) agreed.
The first question was from (CS):
- What is the distance from Earth to Moon?
(M) without any words took out his wallet, Took $10 and gave them to (CS). Now it was turn of (M):
- What is something, which goes upstairs on two feet, and downstairs on three feet?
After giving the question, (M) turned to the window, and tried to fall asleep. (CS) was very puzzled. He thought for 10 minutes and no idea came into his mind about what the hell this could be. He threw a look at (M) and when he saw that (M) was asleep he took his laptop and started to search all his databases. But he found nothing. Then, using the mobile connection in the Aircraft, he went to the internet and searched it, but without success. Finally he sent e-mails to all his friends but no one knew what that could be. So, he sadly took his $50 and started to wake up (M).
(M) was firstly so sleepy that he didn't know where he was, but then seeing $50 he took them, and went to asleep again. But (CS) cried out:
- HEY, MAN!!! What is the answer?!!!
(M) without any words took out his wallet, took out $10, gave them to (CS), and fell asleep again.