This is one I read many long years gone by.
The idea is that a guy developed a process to create artificial diamonds. He owned a house, and created a robot to hold the secret of the process. The robot was covered with diamonds that he had made.
The guy then someone lost his money and his house, but continued to live there. The people who owned his house wanted the secret of the process. So they followed the owner around. The owner wanted to capture his robot and get the process and thus recover his fortunes.
The catch was, in order to get the robot to stand still and be captured, you had to give it the password. The password the owner used was the key to the diamond-making process. The whole short story was a series of Roadrunner-and-Coyote scenarios where he attempted to capture the robot without speaking the password out loud, so that the other guys (who were following him around the house waiting for him to say it) didn’t find out the process and use it to enrich themselves.
[spoiler]Finally, the owner was tricked, or desperate, and said the password out loud. The other guys then immediately ran off to exploit the process, leaving the owner penniless.
The final scene is the owner smashing the quiescent robot with a sledgehammer, smashing the now-worthless diamonds and screaming, “You stupid machine! YOU STUPID MACHINE!” [/spoiler]
I have no idea of the title or author of the story.
Anyone recognize this one?
Knowing the Dope, I expect thirty minutes to the answer to be a generous over-estimate.
Go!
Regards,
Shodan