# Can you defeat the evil genie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 21, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903 "2022-12-21T14:02:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 9

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903/161 "2022-12-23T20:53:16Z")

</div>

“I wish my wish be unfulfilled.”

With all due respect to Kurt Gödel.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903/162 "2022-12-23T21:00:44Z")

</div>

> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Maybe not jail, but something huge and unusual and unexplainable happened, with you at the beneficial epicentre of it.

At the very least, they’d probably find some clause to justify not giving you the money, but then the wish wouldn’t have come true.

I suppose the nature of the government reaction is going to depend partly on how much of an extended universe we want to build around this hypothetical. Like, if you found a real genie, presumably other people have found real genies before you. At a certain point, the government’s going to be aware of the whole genie situation, if for no other reason than someone figured out a reasonably fool-proof way to wish to be President of the United States. There’d probably be a secret Federal Bureau of Genies just to handle guys like you. When they make you disappear, you fucking _disappear_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903/163 "2022-12-23T22:39:04Z")

</div>

> [@Miller](#):
>
> At the very least, they’d probably find some clause to justify not giving you the money, but then the wish wouldn’t have come true.

Yeah, that’s the thing. I specified that it would be a “legally valid” ticket, and as such, any ticket which could be disregarded by the lottery officials would _ **not** _ be legally valid.

There was the suggestion that every time I tried to buy a ticket, the genie would burn down the store just before I got there, which is clever. He can fulfil his end of the wish, but also prevent me from fulfilling **my** end of the wish.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903.md?page=8)