Irritable Irritant..

I can be irritable when I want to. Really irritable.
I am more like this kid, when I decide to be so.

It is a maths class.
Sir notices that the students are losing concentration after an hour of continuous maths drill.

He tries to cheer up the environment with his jokes [mostly made on himself]. But they do not seem to work anymore.
He resorts to his last straw. Puzzles. More like, logical puzzles.

'OK guys, we will do some puzzles now.'
The students close their notes in appreciation, with a call of 'Yaay!'
This kid, likes the teacher and his ways. Young and energetic, the teacher knows how to make people laugh at his expense. But, he kind of was haughty at times and partial to the guys. How she was on the edge of 'despising' it! And she was also a bit bored and exhausted at the kneading of brains.

She decides to have fun by giving him a gala time. Of course, like him, she knew how to do it at her expense. But this time, it had to be mixed. She just hoped he would take it in that spirit.

'Here is the puzzle. Two people, big shots. Businessmen. They need to pass a file from one to the other. They have people around them. And the people are not trustworthy. Each have a lot of boxes with them. And locks and respective keys. But one does not have the keys to the locks the other has. They find a way to transfer it.'
A pause.
'How?'

Kid 'Cant they just give it to each other and shut up?'

Teacher with a look of 'not again!', 'They cant do it themselves. They have to pass it through the people around.'

'Can they use any number of boxes?'

'Yup.'

Kid 'Lock up the thing in a box and send it along with the key.'

Sir ' Anyone can open it!'

Kid' OK. Send the key the second time..'

Sir 'What if the person threw the keys away?'

Kid 'Then they can throw the box away too!'

Sir 'They wont'

The class has started murmuring a bit. They know these two would not stop till one of them won. and neither seemed to let go.

'Shut up and sit there kid! You don't speak sense at all.'

The kid was a bit hurt. But would not give up.

A pause.

A someone out there, 'the smart Alec' of the team, declares he found a way.
Sir goes and listens to him as he whispers the way. 'Ah! He has the answer. Anyone else?' Sir looked around the class avoiding the kid's eyes knowingly..

And the kid thought.. 'Good , now I can carry on the argument happily. The real answer is out.'

Suddenly she got an idea. Long ago, someone had told her, if you cant understand them, speak very normal things in exceedingly confusing language and confuse them. :)

'Sir, I have the answer too.' She stood up enthusiastically.

The teacher had a 'my-goodness-whats-it-this-time!' look.

'Sit and speak.'

'No sir. I prefer to stand up and speak.'

'Sit and speak.'

'No, I want to stand and speak.'

'OK then say!' exasperated.

'First lock the file in a box and send it. Then lock the key of that box in another box and send it. The other can open this box and use that key to open the first box and get the file.'

Sir looked at her. Slowly a look of comprehension came over his face..
'Excellent! Never thought there was another solution to it. I am sorry you speak sense. I take back all those things I said about u.'
Claps...

The kid sat. With a smug look on her face and a hint of a grin at the thought of what was about to come.

The other students looked at each other with utter confusion. Sir decided to explain.
'OK Now guys, this is how it is done, take the file and lock...
What was it again?' He looked at her with utter confusion.

She repeated it. Slower this time, but in a way that only he was able to comprehend and not another soul there.

He tried rephrasing it. And found that he was confounded for a moment.

So, 'What will he do with the key of the second box?'

'Send it after it'

'Told you once, they may throw the key away.'

'They can throw the file and the box too.'

'Told you they cant throw the box!'

'But that is not fair..' a voice of indignation...

trailed off and suddenly rose to say.. 'they can use any number of boxes. Put it in another and send. And the key of it in the next and so on..'

'Shut up and sit. I take back my appreciation to you.' He was irritated. And she was quite happy she had achieved it.. She had a grin of glee. Everyone in the class was grinning. She gave a knowing grin to her best friend in the class. :D He grinned back. :D

The teacher explained the real solution, which was quite obvious after it was explained although, the kid never lost the grin on her face for the rest of the class.

As soon as the class was over and everyone was leaving, she grinned at the teacher with satisfaction. He looked at her like 'wait for the next class'. She knew this would continue till the year end.
Her best friend in the class came over and asked 'Yaar, you were quite in form today, what happened?'

'I will always be in form in his class. I love irritating him. :)'

He rolled his eyes and smiled knowing she would not change..


I am not just like that kid, I am that kid.
And yeah, I had read the puzzle before, in a book I own.