Preview comment

The user verification code you entered is not correct.

Reply



The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.


*

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <i> <b> <u>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web and e-mail addresses are automatically converted into links.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
  • Easily link to terms in various wikis. For help, see interwiki.
  • Easily link to terms in various wikis. For help, see interwiki.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
  • You can use BBCode tags in the text, URLs will be automatically converted to links
Verify comment authorship
Captcha Image: you will need to recognize the text in it.
*
Please type in the letters/numbers that are shown in the image above.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2006-03-24 09:59.

I located the rest of the story:

This is the only meal in town. You can go to another town, but in most towns the restaurant is much more expensive. A few towns are cheaper, but they have lousy food and you might get food poisoning.
The first 4 men have to walk two hours each way to get to lunch and back. The 5th takes the bus, it is 90 minutes. #6 and 7 take the subway, just 60 minutes. 7 and 8 drive, only 40 minutes, but have to feed the meter. #9 gets a free parking space out front, and his commute is only 30 minutes. The restaurant manager sends a limo for #10 at the restaurant's expense, with a cell phone so he can sit in the back and continue making money during his 15 minute ride.

The first 4 men can only order soup and bread. #5 and 6 can order an appetizer also. #7 also gets a salad. #8 also has a main course. #9 can have coffee with his meal. #10 has all that plus dessert and champagne.

The actual cost of the meal and limo is still $100. The manager borrowed the other $20 on the theory that the diners would come back and spend more, so he could hire more waiters who would also spend their paychecks at the restaurant. He knew that if he was wrong he would be long gone before the note came due and could leave it to some future manager to figure out how to repay the loan.

The "owner" was really just a hired manager. He just thought he was the owner because God told him so. The 10 diners actually owned the restaurant, in equal shares. Once every 4 years the partners came together to hire a new manager. However, #1 and 2 could not take the time out from their second jobs. #s 3, 4 and 5 didn't think their opinion would affect the decision so they didn't show up. 3 of the remaining 5 voted for the other guy, but one was a confused old man and the manager's brother was able to switch his vote.