# Numbers on the Back of Fortune Cookies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 4, 1999, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716 "1999-10-04T05:49:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/1 "1999-10-04T05:49:00Z")
Some fortune inserts in Chinese fortune cookies have 6 2-digit numbers printed on the back of them. What is the significance of these?
Other such inserts have Chinese characters on the back of them. I assume these state what the messages were translated from.
Ray
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/2 "1999-10-04T06:48:00Z")
Those are supposed to be the lucky numbers for you to pick in your local lottery.
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### Author:  [@bantmof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bantmof)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/3 "1999-10-04T07:01:00Z")
No, no, no… that’s your _real_ fortune, but in code.
See, the english text you read is the “feel good” fortune - the one that, for marketing purposes, they want you to think is your fortune. They say thing like, “You will have a productive and satisfying career!”, or “You are helpful and kind to strangers!”
However, there is a secret code that maps the number you see into your _real_ fortune. When decoded, they say things like, “You would be wise to get an MRI scan of your left temporal lobe, SOON!”, or, “you will be hit by a bus on the way home from work tomorrow, and suffer a crippling neck injury.”
## For obvious reasons, they can’t just come out and tell you this sort of stuff (they’d never sell the cookies then!), so they put it in code that you can only decipher if you know how.
peas on earth
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### Author:  [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/4 "1999-10-04T21:16:00Z")
Aren’t furtune cookies an American invention?
(Chop Suey too?)
Enright3
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/5 "1999-10-04T21:32:00Z")
Yeah. Both were created by Chinese-Americans, IIRC. Although both were likely based on similar things back in China.
* * *
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/6 "1999-10-04T23:22:00Z")
Yes, fortune cookies are recent. They became popular in North America in the fifties, IIRC. Before that, the popular finish to a Chinese dinner was an almond cake, pretty much a sort of shortbread cookie with ground almonds. Much better than fortune cookies!
See a recipe at [http://food.epicurious.com:80/run/recipe/view?id=11029](http://food.epicurious.com:80/run/recipe/view?id=11029) .
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/7 "1999-10-04T23:23:00Z")
## There was _supposed_ to be a sig on that. ☹
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”
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### Author:  [@omniscientnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omniscientnot)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/8 "1999-10-04T23:36:00Z")
The Chinese equivalent of “Inspected by Inspector no. 18”? 🙂
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### Author:  [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)
#### Post date: [October 5, 1999, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/9 "1999-10-05T05:31:00Z")
Hmm. Quite a choice here. Will the _ **real** _ SD please stand up.
Another clue is that all six of the 2-digit numbers are always less than 50. No leading zero is used with numbers less than 10. Most of the sets of numbers are magenta, but some are green.
Here’s how they make the cookies these days:
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/07/BU67955.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/07/BU67955.DTL)
Should I ask them next time if I can have a shortbread cookie with ground almonds instead?
Do they still sell chop suey. I haven’t seen it on a menu for probably 25 yr at least.
Ray (throws fortunes to the wind)
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [October 5, 1999, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-on-the-back-of-fortune-cookies/3716/10 "1999-10-05T19:17:00Z")
## Yes, Ray, you _should_ ask for an almond cake (or cookie). They probably won’t have them, but if enough people keep asking they might make a comeback.
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”