Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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It might be better to just get another gerbil.

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Hermit Lottery

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Just like a normal lottery, except that the numbers are chosen by a hermit, living on a remote (and secret) island. The tension of watching this hermit arbitrarily choosing numbers which could make you rich will be unbearable.

People being what they are, the distribuion of choices won't be random, so different numbers will come to have different odds associated with them.
hippo, Feb 10 2005

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       Is today lottery day?
skinflaps, Feb 10 2005
  

       crab?
po, Feb 10 2005
  

       Humans are terrible at being random.
Voice, Dec 27 2023
  

       What if it was structured so that the hermit did not know that he was picking anything? Hidden cameras, mics, etc.   

       Players file their choices, based on a sequence of actions or outcomes that may occur to or around the hermit, and a tally is kept of the ones that are actually done and the order. Order is crucial; you may lose if you thought he would fart after dinner, but if you thought he would fart before dinner you would move on to the next plateau. As well, if he masturbated before his orange juice the next morning, all your fart computations would be in vain if he chose grapefruit juice. Over the course of the game losers are dropped out but new players are may be added at steeply increasingly higher fees to match the growing kitty. Having guessed or lucked out and winning the bank, the last person standing takes all. The hermit is sent a pair of snuggly fleece slippers anonymously.   

       I fear for the security and sanity of the hermit, whatever protocol is followed. A hermit no longer...   

       Happy New Year to all the hermits out there!
minoradjustments, Dec 31 2023
  

       //What if it was structured so that the hermit did not know that he was picking anything?// - I like that. It has similarities with the man who ruled the universe in the Douglas Adam’s’ Hitchhiker’s Guide books. He lived alone in a planet with his cat, and men came in spaceships and asked him questions but he didn’t know that the answers he gave to those questions affected the fates of billions of people.
hippo, Dec 31 2023
  
      
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