I’m in the middle of an experiment.  It’s about money … one twenty-euro bill.  Several times now I’ve dropped it on the floor of Izy Coffee, just to see what would happen.  But my friend and barista Arjen keeps picking it up and giving it back to me.  My friend Geert just did the same.  So now I’ve dropped the bill in a less conspicuous part of the floor.

I wonder what you’re thinking as you read this.  Perhaps some version of “crazy”?  How about “stupid”? 

The bill is sitting where I can’t see it.  Maybe someone has already picked it up.  But I’ll just stay here on the couch a while longer.  How cool to not know what’s happened!

A few years ago, I did a similar experiment at Niagara Falls in Canada.  Twice I was the host for two young people – one pair from Belgium and one from Canada.  Both times, at the edge of the Falls, I took out a twenty-dollar Canadian bill … and tossed it into the flow of water.  Especially one pair of 20-year-olds didn’t find it funny.

Okay, I can’t resist.  Here I am getting up and peering around the corner of the counter.

The bill is gone!

And I start laughing.

***

Am I willing to be considered crazy? > Yes

Am I willing to be considered stupid? > Yes

Am I one or both of those? > Possibly