Little-Wonder.Net

13 July, 2007

Mystery of the ring

21:01:03 | Random Musing, Work |

On Wednesday, I happened to bring a packet of cupcakes to work, sealed with a piece of thick golden wire. After finishing the cupcakes, yours truly had twisted said golden wire into a ‘ring’ out of sheer boredom, leaving said ‘ring’ on my desk prior to leaving the workplace that day.

Apparently, two other colleagues had approached me yesterday, informing me that they had seen the ‘ring’ sitting on my desk, one of whom almost wanted to safekeep it for me, whereas the other one panicked - until they discovered that the ‘ring’ was merely a piece of wire.

I laughed at first, until an idea came to mind.

I picked up the above-mentioned ‘ring’ and left it on the ground at the doorway of the server room, with the intention of seeing who else will fall for this prank. My assistant manager saw what I was doing and she too, laughed.

Don’t dismiss this as a mere prank. In fact, there is a rationale for doing so!

1) To test the observancy of the people around. How many people will actually stop and take notice of something gleaming on the ground?

2) Appeal to people’s greed. (Who can resist anything hard, golden and shiny?)

With the ring in full view on the ground, I proceeded to go back to work … until my prank claimed it’s first victim, with every one else (manager included) seated in the server room bursting into loud laughter simultaneously.

Apparently, victim number one seemed to be immensely happy over the fact that he was the first victim, and additionally, proud that he happened to be one of the few observant people around who actually spotted the ‘ring’. (Quite a number simply strolled past without realizing it.)

In fact, he even wanted to stick around in the room to see who else will fall for the prank.

After four, five, six, seven (and counting) people stalked in and out of the room with hardly a glance in the ring’s direction, his expression turned into one of dismay.

“Everyone’s so unobservant!” he exclaimed.

Right at that moment. victim number two appeared. Happily yakking on the phone, he spotted the ‘ring’ at the doorway, strolled over and bent down to pick it up.

My assistant manager was the first one to burst into laughter, before everyone else followed suit.

Wondering if there would be a third victim, I returned the ‘ring’ to it’s original spot on the ground, and resumed my work.

The third victim appeared after almost an hour. (More people walked past without noticing the ring’s presence.) Victim number three came in the form of a middle-aged repair person who worked in the premises, and I was watching him from the corner of my eye, trying my best not to laugh.

Victim three was the ULTIMATE.

I watched silently as he spotted the ‘ring’ and stopped short, glanced left and right suspiciously before bending down to retrieve the ‘ring’, pocketed it, and dashed off.

Initially, I was shocked at the repair person’s blatant dishonestly, before remembering that hey, this was the BEST victim to my prank before I burst into uncontrollable laughter along with the one other person in the room who had witnessed the whole situation.

Oh my goodness golly.

Imagine that repair person’s expression when he realizes that he’s been tricked. Now, that would be priceless.

Remember kids, dishonestly (and greed) gets you nowhere!