What's the one trick question that 99% of people get wrong every single time? #redditstories #reddit — Transcript

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1. 0:00What's the one trick question that 99%
2. 0:01of people get wrong every single time?
3. 0:03For 2 years, the bar down my street had
4. 0:04a trivia jackpot nobody could win. Not
5. 0:06because the questions were hard, because
6. 0:07of the man asking them. His name was
7. 0:08Vance and every Thursday he hosted
8. 0:10trivia at Sal's Tavern like he was
9. 0:11emceeing an award show. A velvet blazer
10. 0:13he definitely ordered online. The
11. 0:14jackpot rolled over week after week past
12. 0:16$2,000 and Vance made sure it never paid
13. 0:18out. Every night came down to his final
14. 0:20stumper and every night the leading team
15. 0:21walked away with nothing while he
16. 0:22smirked into the mic. Better luck next
17. 0:23time geniuses. That was his whole
18. 0:25personality, humiliation. He didn't just
19. 0:26want you to lose, he wanted the whole
20. 0:28room to watch. The thing that finally
21. 0:29got to me was Walt. Walt was 73, came in
22. 0:31every Thursday with a thermos of decaf
23. 0:33and a team of one, just him. 40 years as
24. 0:35a history teacher, sharp as a tack and
25. 0:36every week Vance saved his cruelest
26. 0:38energy for him. Careful old-timer, don't
27. 0:40have a heart attack. The whole bar would
28. 0:41laugh. Then one Thursday, Walt was up by
29. 0:43a mile going into the final. The jackpot
30. 0:44sat at $2200. Vance leaned in and asked
31. 0:47his stumper. I'm thinking of a word, he
32. 0:48said grinning. It becomes shorter when
33. 0:49you add two letters to it. What's the
34. 0:51word? Walt sat there. The whole room sat
35. 0:52there. Nobody had it. After 60 seconds
36. 0:54Vance clapped his hands. Time. Oh Walt,
37. 0:56so close to a nap and a win. He never
38. 0:58gave the answer to anyone. A magician
39. 0:59doesn't reveal his tricks, he'd say, and
40. 1:01roll the jackpot over one more week.
41. 1:02That night I watched Walt fold up his
42. 1:04answer sheet, screw the cap on his
43. 1:05thermos and walk out without a word.
44. 1:06Something in me just clicked. Oh, here's
45. 1:08the thing Vance didn't know about me. I
46. 1:09notice patterns. It's literally my job,
47. 1:10quality control at a packaging plant,
48. 1:12catching the one bad box in 10,000. And
49. 1:14I'd started noticing two things about
50. 1:15his trivia night that didn't add up. The
51. 1:16first was the questions. His stumpers
52. 1:18were never trivia. They were word
53. 1:19tricks, the same kind over and over,
54. 1:21self-referential little riddles. He
55. 1:22wasn't smart, he was reusing a deck. The
56. 1:24second was the money. Entry was 10 bucks
57. 1:25a team. I counted teams every week for 2
58. 1:27months. Some nights there were 20 teams.
59. 1:28That's $200 a night feeding a jackpot
60. 1:30that's supposedly only crept up by a
61. 1:31little. The math never closed. The pot
62. 1:33was leaking and there was only one set
63. 1:34of hands on it. So I started preparing.
64. 1:35Not for trivia, for Vance. For 3 weeks I
65. 1:37wrote down every final question he
66. 1:38asked, word for word, and
67. 1:39cross-referenced them. I found his
68. 1:41source, a 15-year-old riddle forum. The
69. 1:42exact phrasing on every one. Each
70. 1:44original stumper was copy-pasted from
71. 1:45the same website, including the one that
72. 1:47beat Walt. It becomes shorter when you
73. 1:48add two letters. The answer was short.
74. 1:50You add E R, short becomes shorter. That
75. 1:51was the question that had kept $2000
76. 1:53from people for 2 years. Then I asked
77. 1:55Sal, the owner, one quiet question on a
78. 1:56Tuesday when Vance wasn't there. Hey
79. 1:58Sal, how much does the trivia jackpot
80. 1:59pay out at the end of the year? Sal
81. 2:00frowned. Pay out? Vance handles all
82. 2:02that. He says nobody ever wins, so it
83. 2:03just rolls. I nodded and said nothing,
84. 2:05but now I knew, and Sal didn't. The next
85. 2:06Thursday I showed up early with Tess, my
86. 2:08coworker, and signed us up. The place
87. 2:09was packed for the anniversary, and Sal
88. 2:11had invited the guy who owned the
89. 2:11building. The jackpot hit the screen,
90. 2:13$2,400. We placed second on purpose,
91. 2:15just close enough. Walt was first, like
92. 2:16always, and Vance, like always, saved
93. 2:18his energy for him. Big night, old man.
94. 2:20Don't choke. Final question. Vance
95. 2:21grinned, tapped the mic. I'm thinking of
96. 2:23a word. It becomes shorter when you add
97. 2:24two letters. What's the word? The same
98. 2:25one. Of course it was. Walt opened his
99. 2:27mouth, and before he could say anything,
100. 2:28I stood up. Short, I said. The word is
101. 2:30short. You add e r, it becomes shorter.
102. 2:32You've asked that exact question four
103. 2:33times this year, Vance. You pulled it
104. 2:34off a riddle forum from 2009. The bar
105. 2:36went dead silent. Vance's grin cracked.
106. 2:38That's well, that's not the official
107. 2:39wording. It's the answer, I said. So
108. 2:40Walt wins $2,400. I turned to Sal.
109. 2:43Except has anyone ever actually been
110. 2:44paid out of this jackpot? Because I
111. 2:46counted. 20 teams a night, $10 a team
112. 2:47for two years. I held up the folder.
113. 2:49That's a lot more than $2,400. Vance
114. 2:51went the color of his blazer. Sal walked
115. 2:52up to the little stage, took the mic
116. 2:53gently out of his hand, and said the
117. 2:55only thing he needed to. Give Walt his
118. 2:56money, Vance. Then give me the rest.