great story

I just heard this on Penn Jillette's radio show.

Penn has a friend who is an expert on betting and cheating who was doing some consulting work for the Texas state lottery. Penn's friend told him the following story.

A businessman went to his girlfriend in Dallas and tells her he has a winning lottery ticket for $25,000. He told her that he has to go on the road for a few weeks, but hold on to this ticket for him and when he gets back they'll cash it in and go to Vegas and have a good time. He gives her the ticket and heads to Houston.

When he gets to the Houston he goes to see another girlfriend there. He gives her a winning lottery ticket for $25,000 and say the same thing - he has to go on the road for a few weeks, but hold on to this ticket and when I get back we'll cash it in and go to Vegas for and have a good time.

Well the Dallas girl isn't going to wait for him to get back. She heads to the lottery office in Austin, where you have to go to cash in big prizes. When she gets there, she has to answer standard questions like:

• Did you buy this ticket yourself?
• Has it been in your possession the whole time?
• Have you tampered with it in any way?
• Has anyone else had any opportunity to tamper with it?

She tells them she bought the ticket and has held onto it the whole time. Penn's friend and other lottery officials are trying to be nice to her, because just looking at it they can tell it is a forgery.

"Are you sure about that?"

Yes.

"If you sign here, and it is wrong you'll get in trouble and go to jail for fraud."

I'll sign it. I just want the money.

"Are you sure about all those answers? If you have any doubt, you might not want to sign it..."
No I bought the ticket and I've had it the whole time. I want to cash it in.

So she signs the forms, and they immediately arrest her. Of course at that point she immediately comes clean and tells them about her boyfriend giving her the ticket. So they call the businessman and ask him about the ticket.

"Yeah that ticket is a fake. I really did win $25,000 so I made 2 copies of the ticket and gave it to 2 girls to see which one I could trust. Looks like I'm going to Vegas with my Houston girl!"

The great part is that he had done nothing illegal - you can make all the copies you want as long as you don't try to claim a prize on them.