One summer day,when you're fasting, your
mentor tells you to go and fetch some thin
sticks from the forest. He obviously doesn't
want them to build a fire, so what does he
want them for? When you get back, you ask
him, and this is what he says:
I want to show you a little game that will
help you figure out how smart someone is,
without them knowing that that is what you're
doing. When I've told you the simple secret,
then you will know how to win. How long it
takes your opponent to figure out the secret
will tell you how smart they are, but if it's
taking a long time, please be diplomatic and
purposely lose a few, and then end the game.
This is a game for two players.
Arrange the sticks in to as many seperate
piles as you like, but there must be at least
three piles to make the game work.
The Four rules of the game are:
1...You must take at least one stick at every turn.
2...For each turn, you can take as many sticks as you like.
3...You can only take from one pile in any one go.
4...The player who takes the last stick loses the game.
So, you played the game, and you couldn't
understand why you kept losing so often. So,
before you eventually figured it out, your
mentor said this:
All you have to remember to win the game are
these two rules:
1...Always leave at least two sticks in each
pile, except the last one, when you can
take all but one, which your opponent has
to take and therefore loses the game.
2...If at any time, your opponent leaves a
pile with only one stick in it, and there
are more than two piles left, then you
must take the pile with only one stick in it.
And now you will find that you win most of
the time, your advantage being that you know
the secret before your opponent figures
it out.
Have fun!
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