About the Guy Who Won $10 Million by Betting on the End of the World

Somewhere in the future, the scientists have figured out how to calculate when the end of the World will happen. And I'm not talking about all those superstitions whenever a solar eclipse occurs or we enter a new millennium. This one was 100% correct and accurate – on that very day the earthquakes will shake the ground as they never did before, the volcanoes will spit lava like never in the history, and the Earth will shatter in 10 million tiny pieces.

Well, ok, they didn’t know in exactly how many pieces the Earth will shatter, but they thought 10 million was a dramatic enough number. So, in a marketing attempt to let the people know without causing too much fuss (how much fuss can you cause with the information about the World’s end really), the World governments decided to organize a lottery. The person who guesses the exact date will receive $10 million and according to the wise-cracking scientists, this was more than enough to enjoy the rest of the life as a true king – expensive cars and champagne included.

You can imagine the craze. Almost every single person gave a predicament and people everywhere, in every corner of the World and in every corner of the Internet started talking about it. The marketing attempt worked, everyone’s attention was smoothly turned from the fear of the World’s End to excitement.

Some people were analyzing how the tectonic plates were behaving in the hope of finding a clue to the exact date. Others thought the answer can be found in the behavior of the bees as they knew if bees go extinct, at one point the World would end.

Entire groups of people started looking for bees as if they were the Holy Grail. In the meantime, the bees were doing what they always were doing; flying from one flower to another, collecting pollen and producing honey. Of course, nobody was eating the honey as everyone was busy with observing the little honey creators.

There were also people who read books and who knew of the theory that at one point in the future the Universe would expand to the point where it will no longer contain thermodynamic energy. Basically, at one point, the Universe will become a cold and dark place and not in the way you might feel when your girlfriend or boyfriend dumps you. If the Earth survives until this point, it will join this emptiness until a supposed new Big Bang happens. These people thought it would be fun to bet on when the new Universe will begin as well. Needless to say, nobody thought it was funny except for them.

There was also this group of people you’d call skeptics. They thought it was all a big hoax and actually, they were the only one still enjoying the honey and everything else the current World had to offer. In other words – they did nothing out of the ordinary.

So after the time passed and all the bets were placed, it was time to pronounce the winner – the person who won the $10 million. The winner was some random guy from Sydney, Australia who placed his bet more as a joke. He got drunk one day and thought it would be funny if he put his bet as well.

To his surprise, one day he got a call from some other random guy telling him he was correct and that he won $10 million. What’s even better, the money was already on its way and the $10 million in cash will be handed to him personally in few hours.

Now, your initial thought might be how there wasn’t a happier guy in the World than the random guy from Sydney, Australia. Well, he did smile – sort of. But the smile was one of those “oh shit”, nervous smiles.

You see, he guessed correctly because he bet the World’s End will happen exactly tomorrow. That meant he had only one day to spend the $10 million. It looked like the scientists were right – it really was enough money to spend the rest of your life in luxury.

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