thimblerig
[thim-buh l-rig]
noun
1.a sleight-of hand swindling game in which the operator palms a pelletor pea while appearing to cover it with one of three thimblelike cups,and then, moving the cups about, offers to bet that no one can tellunder which cup the pellet or pea lies.
verb (used with object), thimblerigged, thimblerigging.
2. to cheat by or as by the thimblerig.
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“Hey, Timmy! Timmy, get over here! I want to show you something.”
Timmy
put his toy car down and approached Uncle Ron.
The man’s smell wafted over the boy.
Timmy thought it smelled like smoke mixed with the stuff his mom used to
clean with. Both his parents told him
not to ask what made the smell, so he ignored it.
“You
know what these are?” Uncle Ron said. He
held up three red plastic cups and a small, blue glass bead.
“Uh
huh.” Timmy said.
“Well,
whatever you think, it’s wrong. These
things here are the only things you’ll ever need to live the good life. It’s not easy to use them right, but once you
do, it’s all you’ll ever need. Come
here, I’ll show you.” Uncle Ron put the bead on the cluttered coffee table and
covered it with a cup. He then placed
the other two on either side of it. “Now,
I’m going to shuffle these around a bit, and I want you to tell me which cup
has the bead under it, okay?”
“Okay.”
Timmy said. He could do that. He was good at that kind of thing.
Timmy
watched closely as his uncle shuffled the cups, changing their positions over
and over. When he was done, Timmy
pointed to the left cup. Uncle Ron
lifted the cup, and sure enough, the bead was under it.
“Nice
going, kiddo. But that’s not the end of
things. Try it again.”
Uncle
Ron replaced the bead and reshuffled the cups.
He moved his hands even slower than the first time. Timmy almost laughed. This was going to be easy. Anyone could follow the right cup at that
speed. This time he pointed to the
middle cup. When it was lifted, there
was nothing under it. But how? Timmy was certain that was the right cup.
“Don’t
feel too bad, kiddo. You weren’t going
to win this one, no matter what. See?”
Uncle Ron picked up the other two. All
of them were empty.
“That’s
cheating!” Timmy whined.
“This
time, sure, since I asked which cup the bead is under. But, see, here’s the catch. Out in the real world, I’d ask where the bead
is, and let people think it’s under a cup.
That way, it’s not cheating. Now,
want to know where the bead is?” Timmy nodded.
“Good kid. It’s right here.”
Uncle
Ron shook his right hand and the bead slid out of his sleeve. Timmy’s eyes widened. It was like magic!
“See,
this whole thing’s a neat little trick.
The first time, when you got it right, you could’ve guessed any cup and
been right. Want to know why? It’s because of these.” He shook his left sleeve and two more identical
beads slid out. “All the cups had a bead
under them the first time. That’s the
key to the whole thing.”
“Why?”
Timmy asked.
“See,
what you do, is you get people hooked by letting them win a few times. You know, get them on a real winning
streak. Then you take the beads away and
clean house on them.”
“Why
would you clean their house?” Timmy asked.
Uncle Ron chuckled.
“Not
that clean house. I mean you get them to
bet all their money, and then make them lose it. Trust me, kid, this is a gold mine. It’s not easy, but once you do, everything
falls into place. It’ll help you make
friends, get you girls, and make tons of money.
Well, as long as you’re smart about it.”
Timmy
liked making friends, and money was apparently important. But the girls thing was weird. Why would he want to get girls? They were gross. The other two still sounded good though.
“So,
how about it, kiddo? Want to learn the
secret of good living?”
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I never knew this had an actual name. I always just assumed it was a cup game or a cup job or something similar to that. Guess it's true what they say about learning things every day and such.
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