Do you like paradoxes?

Today I will talk about the paradox of the magic bill, which has gone viral on social media.

Welcome to Speak English Now podcast with your host Georgiana, the podcast that will help you to speak English fluently with no grammar and no textbooks.

Hi, I'm Georgiana. Thanks for joining me for a new Speak English Now podcast episode.

If you want to help, please share the podcast on social media.

That would mean a lot. Thanks.

Before we start, visit my website, speakenglishpodcast.com, and subscribe to my mini-course.

It's completely free.

Okay, let's start. A paradox is a fact, expression, or story that seems contrary to logic. I invite you to listen to this paradox and then assume the solution. Pay attention.

A tourist arrives at a hotel. He is very picky about the rooms, so he asked the receptionist

if he can see them first. The receptionist agrees, but ask the tourist to leave $100 at the front desk.

The tourist leaves a $100 bill and goes upstairs to look at the vacant rooms to see if he likes any of them.

The hotel manager then takes this bill and goes to the butcher shop to pay a 100 debt to the

butcher. The butcher goes to the bakery. To pay the 100 debt he owes the baker,

and does so with the same $100 bill. The baker, in turn, takes the bill and pays his debt to his doctor with the same bill.

Finally, the doctor returns to the hotel and pays a $100 debt he owes to the hotel manager.

At that point, the tourist returns and tells the desk clerk that he does not want to stay at the hotel. He takes his $100 bill and leaves. The apparent paradox is that before the tourist arrived,

the manager, the butcher, the baker, and the doctor no longer owe anything.

No one owes anything to anyone.

No one has worked or produced anything, and no one has lost a single dollar. I think that the key to understanding this supposed paradox is that each of the characters owed $100, but they were also owed $100.

That is, everyone at some point would have to pay $100, but also at some point had to receive $100. In reality, the bill has not affected anyone's

economy. What has happened is that each person's debt has been cancelled. Now I think I need an aspirin.

...