Think of a Number

Anders Bodelsen

2 ideas

1. The clerk who robbed the robbery

   Borck, an unremarkable clerk at a Copenhagen bank branch, pieces together clues that his branch is about to be robbed. Instead of warning anyone, he quietly diverts most of the cash out of his till, so the robber leaves with a fraction and the reported loss is far larger than what was actually taken. The robber, a violent psychopath, reads the reported figure, realizes the clerk has the difference, and begins a campaign of intimidation to get it back.

2. A shared guilty secret creates mutual hostages

   Once the honest man takes the money, he and the robber each hold knowledge that would destroy the other, so neither can go to the police. The law drops out, and the conflict becomes a private war fought by improvised rules. The first small transgression strips the citizen of the state's protection in exactly the degree that it makes him complicit.

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