A Bar Bet

by Kevin J. Lin

A friendly young man approaches you at your favorite watering hole and offers you the following wager:

"I'll bet $25 I can lift that half full beer bottle one foot off the bar using only this plastic drinking straw. That's right- the only thing I'll touch the bottle with is this straw, and the only thing that will touch the straw other than the bottle will be my hand.
"What's more, the straw will only touch the inside of the bottle, not the outside. And in the entire process no beer will be spilled or lost. What do you say friend, will you bet that I can't?"

Now you have learned the dangers of accepting wagers from strangers, so you politely decline the bet and he goes off in search of another sucker. But sitting puzzled by the bar you begin to wonder if you should have taken his bet to satisfy your own curiousity. What was the hustler's trick?

See the Solution