Hi everyone!

If I have a genie- LoH contest#292. First entry.

I know this can never happen, but imagine if genies were actually real. Imagine me wandering into a dusty old junk shop, picking up a dented brass lamp that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since the time of Aladin of the Arabian Nights. I give it one casual rub, just to see if it’s worth selling as scrap and BOOM! A tornado of blue smoke shoots out like someone set off fireworks inside a pressure cooker.

Out of the swirling smoke, a genie appears. He is not a muscular Hollywood type genie. Rather, this one looks like he hasn’t slept in 500 years and desperately needs coffee. He bows dramatically (almost falling over) and says, “What do you wish to have, my master? I can fulfil only one wish.” His voice echoes like someone speaking inside a steel water tank.

Now, choosing one wish is torture. If I ask for money, I might end up rich but lonely, sitting in a golden palace with no friends except mosquitoes. If I ask for family, maybe money disappears and I spend my life paying electricity bills through credit cards and arguing with my employer for a salary hike. Everything in this world comes with a hidden side effect like buying a phone and discovering the charger is sold separately. Oops!

Human desires are endless. Give us one thing and we immediately want the next upgrade. So how can I settle for just one wish?

That’s when my genius brain lights up like a supernova explosion.

I tell the genie, “My wish is … give me another genie who can fulfil a hundred wishes.”

The first genie blinks. He did not see that coming. It was beyond his imagination that this may ever happen. But rules are rules. He snaps his fingers and suddenly a second genie appears. This one looks fresh and energetic, like he just came from a spa.

Now I have a genie who can grant a hundred wishes. The first genie sighs in relief, bows again and vanishes back into the lamp, probably to complain about me to his genie union.

Tell me, isn’t this the smartest way to exploit the magical world?