Winning

I was walking through our buildings lobby this afternoon, when I saw one of those scratch off lottery cards laying on the floor.

As I often do, I picked it up and continued walking. When I entered my office a co-worker saw the card and asked if it was a winner. I had no idea and I told her so. So I sat down and looked at it. On the top row were a series of 5 numbers, already scratched off. Then there were rows of other numbers and if you matched any of the five, you won.

So, I looked at the 5 winning numbers and checked all the numbers below, and there was no winner. Now, with this card, you could win with a matching number and if you scratched off a box at the end of each row, you could actually win a multiplier for the winning number. The multiplier numbers had not been scratched, so I did those just to see if there was a big winner. On row 3 there was a "win 5 times" your winning amount. Gosh, I thought, that would have been nice. Then I looked at that particular row again and noticed a 25 as one of the numbers. I glanced up and on the top row of winning match numbers, there was a 25.

Weird. The cards buyer had missed the winning number and so had I. I scratched the spot below the 25, that is how you find out how much you win. Now, remember, since I scratched the box at the end of the row, I already knew that no matter what I won, I would get 5 times that amount, and keep in mind, I found this card.

I scratched and there it was, one million dollars. I almost fainted.

That would be 5 million American dollars.

I studied the card just to make sure. Yes, 25 on the top row, 25 on the row I was looking at, in a row with a special win 5 times your winning amount. I looked at the one million dollar prize and noticed that it was not exactly the one under the 25, it was the one next to the one under the 25. So, I did not win 5 million dollars on a card I found on the floor.

I scratched the spot under the 25. Twenty dollars. So, let's do some math, 20 dollars times 5 equals 100. So, by walking thru the lobby and seeing a card, I won 100 dollars. Not nearly 5 million, but 100 dollars more than I started with.

In my mind I am going to focus on the 5 million and what that would have meant, in the meantime, I think I have a date tonight with a hotty and she will know exactly how to spend that money.