[Rockhounds] A Mineral Puzzle

[Lawrence Rush]

The Celestite Sale- A Puzzle



Last year, I was selling minerals at a Connecticut show, when a small family 
stopped by to look at my booth. The young boy, maybe nine or ten years old, 
was immediately taken by the electric blue color of a Madagascar Celestite I 
had for sale for $30. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it, and started 
pestering his mother and father to buy it for him. Evidently he had been 
given $10 to spend at the show, but this far exceeded that. Finally, after a 
long period of pleading, his mother told the father that, if they each would 
chip in $10, he could buy it, and their contribution would count towards his 
birthday present, a few weeks away. This proved agreeable, they paid me the 
$30, and I wrapped up the specimen, to be proudly carried away by the 
youngster.



A few minutes later, my wife returned from wandering, and I told her about 
the boy and the sale. She reminded me that the Celestite was marked as “on 
sale”, for $25! She looked around, and saw the family not far away. I gave 
her five $1 bills to take to them, and off she went. However, on the way 
there, she stopped and bought a large soda, spending 2 of the 5 one dollar 
bills. So when she caught up with the family, she gave them only $3 as a 
refund, explaining that they had paid too much.



The mother thanked my wife, took the three $1 bills, and gave one each to 
herself, her husband, and her son.



This means that they each paid $9 for the Celestite, or a total of $27. If 
you add in the $2 she spent on the soda, the total came to $29.



What happened to the other dollar????





Larry Rush



(Please do not copy without permission)