You Can't Outsmart a Genie

The Arabian legend of the genie has always fascinated us. The main idea of having a wish granted forces us to come up with our own three wishes, making us focus on what our real priorities in life are. The stories of this trickster character often reveal that the person making the wishes will get what they deserve instead of what they want. The genie can take a wish too literally, or too broadly, or grant it with all the problems that come with it, or mess it up in whatever way he chooses to keep you from getting what you desire. That has given us a thought experiment of sorts, to come up with a way to word a wish perfectly to ensure that the genie cannot trick us out of it or punish us with unintended consequences. This guy finally gets his chance, and he thinks he's ready with the perfect scheme. He's got a lesson coming, and it's that you cannot outsmart a genie. There's a reason the original stories all had the same moral, and it was "don't be greedy."