Sunday, September 25, 2005

The Six Rupee Theory



Ah, yes! Guess my previous post has finally done it - the rains have stopped! I always knew I was special, but now I'm starting to scare even myself! [Let's just hope I didn't jinx everything by saying this and it starts raining again!]


Well, having received two requests to put up a post on the "Six Rupee" Theory [and having already lost the few shreds of credibility I may have had with my female readers], I'll do so here.


[I'd just like to state though, that it's not so much of a 'theory' as an 'algorithm']

Like most other interesting theories in my life its genesis lies in the hallowed confines of a Barista's Coffee Shop. One night, Kunal [Sawardekar], Dani and I were sitting in the Barista on Law College Road, with scant little on our minds and even less in our pockets. [In case you're thinking "Yup, just another Saturday night!", you'd be right!]

After a few minutes, I manage to unearth a handful of coins from my bag and endeavor to teach them how to play Nim [while keeping a wary eye out for any of the Barista staff who might decide to evict us in favor of some other more profitable customers]. After only few games, by which time I was quite convinced that neither Kunal nor Dani had it in them to make a career out of playing Nim, we began to look for some other form of entertainment.

I returned all the coins to their rightful corners of my bag, save for six shiny, new one-rupee coins, which I left out on the table. I looked up at Dani and said, "Hey, here's something you can try out. Why don't you take these six one-rupee coins, all stacked up like this, and go over to that girl sitting alone at that table over there. Then place the stack on the table in front of her and ask her whether she'll sleep with you for six rupees!"

Dani gives me a funny look.

So I continue, "Don't get your hopes up, she'll probably say no. So in that case you pull away your stack of six coins and replace it with a crisp, new Rs 10 note. Now ask her whether she'll sleep with you for ten bucks!"

Dani's look gets even funnier. Kunal's lips have the hint of a smile on them, appreciative of my genius, no doubt.

"Ah", I conclude. "But if by some chance she happens to say yes at first, then snatch away the six coins and say, 'Hey, if you'll sleep with me for six rupees, then surely you won't mind sleeping with me for nothing!'"

18 comments:

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Salil said...

What? Now an anonymous spammer! Whatever happened to the i-know-you-but-wont-tell-who anonymous dude/dudette?

Anonymous said...

hey arnold, I just wanna say... of, first off, I don't know u, not even sure I've met u before. I got 2 know about the infamous "what women want" blog through udas, so I thought i'd come over and see 4 myself. You kno, I think u've got the short end of the stick for the wrong reasons, pal. from wat I gather, ur posts are pure humour, and very well written if you keep that in mind. ur doing wat u want, dats all dat should matter to u. Oh, and call me curious, I wish Dani had taken ur advice, loved to have seen what happened.

Anonymous said...

salil - dunno, pal.. just dun know..

neel - hey! nice to hear tht you think so... btw, think i can imagine wht wud hv transpired if dani had indeed made an attempt... maybe it cud b my nxt post.. wht say?

Nefisa said...

arrrgh a mistake in your title "c'est la résurrection" not like you would be able to pronounce the difference between é and è but still. anyways you can also try
"c'est la renaissance",

" et ça recommence"(and it starts again)

"rigor mortis ante mortem" (ok that one is latin and means "cadaveric rigidity before the actual death", you can use it if you ever intend to take another break )

well and whatever, I m tired. and if you want girls for free , not a single penny. Come to coventry, you can get almost any.

FifthBeatle said...

well nef, i *did* try for tht other type of "e" but i just cudnt for the life of me figure out how to type it...

i'll try again..

FifthBeatle said...

there... it's changed :D

Kunal said...

Arnold, the fame's gone to your head, you've got even the six rupee theory mixed up.

If the girl agrees to do it for six bucks, you remove one coin, because if she was willing to sleep with you for six, she'll be willing for five. If she agrees for five bucks, you remove another, and so on. This way, you find the optimum price. And it was I, not you, who suggested it.

Nefisa said...

cool :)

Anonymous said...

Kunal - you know squat about binary searching [not being the computer science majors that we are!! :P]

*and* dont even try to steal the theory man... we know you're doing ur major in Economics.. but this one's all mine mate!

Anonymous said...

and btw, whtever hppnd to the author's right to leave out little details to make the story more intrsting...

Kunal said...

You can call it your theory if you wish, but the part about reducing the coins is mine. The mere idea of an engineer , and a CS engineer at that, coming up with such a brilliant algorithm (I'm using small words so you'll understand) of allocation of resources is laughable. Yes, I laugh at your pathetic attempt to appropriate my glory. Ha!

Anonymous said...

ok ok, kunal! i'll grant you the glory of having come up with the reducing coins part... but i still believe it's better to snatch away all the coins rather than to just take them away one at a time.... ;)

Agent M said...

Um by the way Arnold,that girl accepted or what?Probably not right?I dont think anyone would dare to do that (ok.exception th dps girl :D).
And you just got blogrolled in my blog.:) Thanks for the comments....

Saurabh said...

Hmm ...

So you're back ...
Good :)

Read your all Infamous blog .. that was quite something ...
A very worthwhile blog, accentuated only by the funnier comments that followed ...

A blog's a blog ...
Oh well ...

Good to have to back :)

Siddhu said...

Lol!!!!!!!!!!

Long time since I dropped in here..

Kunal said...

Good, I knew you wouldn't be able to hold up your pretense for long.

>>"but i still believe it's better to snatch away all the coins rather than to just take them away one at a time"

This just shows your pathetic engineer's mind at work. See, the goal is to maximise the marginal utility for you and the girl, which wouldn't happen if you took all the coins away. If you'd only studied the mechanics of the theory instead of rambling about "binary searching", you might have understood it better.

Anonymous said...

kunal - see.. the point is the 6 rupees are a lure... they're just there to get her attention... after tht u can except to the prize for free... if you're lucky.. ;)