A man walks into a store. He selects a hat priced at $7 and gives the salesman a $10 bill. There is no change in the till, so
the salesman takes the bill over to the neighbor to break it. He comes back, gives the buyer the hat and $3 change. The next day the neighbor comes in and tells the salesman that the $10 bill he broke is counterfeit. The salesman takes a look at the bill and sees it is indeed a fake. He apologizes and gives the neighbor a new, genuine $10 bill. The question is: how much has the salesman lost in this triple transaction (assuming, for simplicity’s sake, that the price of the hat was equal to its cost)?
Continue reading ‘State analysis (sometimes, the problem is too easy to be easily solved)’
