The Taiwanese Mystery Egg (Culture Fiction)
By well-wisher
- 332 reads
Someone showed me a lavishly painted and decorated porcelain egg the other day. They called it a Taiwanese Mystery Egg.
They said to me, "I'll sell you this Taiwanese Mystery egg for 10 pounds".
"10 pounds?", I asked, "Why would I want to buy that egg, even if it is nicely decorated?".
"Because it might have a goose made of pure gold in it and on the other hand it might not", they said, "You see it's a kind of gamble".
"But if it has gold in it why would you sell it to me for 10 pounds?", I asked.
"Well, I don't know what it has in it", they replied, "Someone sold it to me for 10 pounds saying it might have gold in it and I'm betting that it hasn't got gold in it thats why I'm reselling it but I'm taking a gamble because if it does have gold in it then I'm giving away gold for a measily 10 pounds".
"Well why don't you just break the egg and find out?", I asked.
"And what if it doesn't have any gold inside?", they said, "Then all I would have is the broken pieces of an egg and I can't sell the broken pieces but if I don't break it, well you said so yourself, its a nicely decorated porcelain egg. Maybe an antique".
It sounded like an interesting idea, I suppose, and so I ended up buying the egg but now I'm not exactly sure what I should do with it.
I like the egg, you understand. It's like one of those old chinese vases that you see in museums and it has an interesting design on it of a golden goose just like the one in the Grimm's fairytale.
But perhaps the egg does have gold inside, in which case I should break it open to get the gold shouldn't I? But then if I break it open and theres no gold inside well then I've smashed a perfectly good chinese porcelain ornament that I could have kept or even resold.
To be honest its a conundrum thats been bothering me quite a lot and so thats why I was wondering... anyone want to buy a Taiwanese Mystery egg? Only 10 pounds.
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