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Getting a guard to hand over a cigarette

Question

You are locked in a cell with nothing to offer in exchange. How could you force a guard to give you a cigarette?

Short answer

Create a credible threat the guard wants to avoid. The classic answer is to tell the guard that unless you get a cigarette you will bang your head against the wall and then claim the guard beat you; the guard's cheapest way out is to hand one over. The puzzle tests lateral thinking about incentives: with nothing to give, you change what the other side stands to lose.

Adapted from Crack, Heard on the Street, Q5.5.7, p.54; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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