Crumb

A bakery counter and sixteen pastries: matched pairs of ones to sixes, one lone seven, and three burnt ones worth less than nothing — two at minus three and one at minus four. Each morning brings four to the counter and one baker DIVIDES them onto two plates — any split at all — while the other CHOOSES a plate and leaves the divider the rest. Matched pastries on one plate pay their value again, so a pair broken across plates goes plain on both sides. Four mornings, the dividing turns alternate, and the richer plate keeps the shop — or, if the plates weigh the same, the baker holding the seven.

How it feels

• A pair you cannot bear to break
• The burnt one coming home with you
• Two plates weighed to the crumb

What the design is for

• 01

  The divider’s share is the gap

  The chooser takes the richer plate whatever you do, so the divider’s best cut is the FAIREST one — two plates as close as the values allow. The whole game is finding the cut that is fair by worth rather than by count, which is harder the moment pairs and burnts share a counter.

• 02

  Matched pairs pay again

  Two pastries of the same value on one plate pay that value a second time — a pair of fours is twelve, not eight. Break a pair across the plates and both sides go plain: the divider’s cruelty is exactly there, offer the pair whole or make everybody poorer.

• 03

  Burnt pastries

  Three of the sixteen are burnt — two at minus three and one at minus four, which is the worst thing on the counter. Somebody takes them home; the only question is whether the divider can make the plate that carries them rich enough to be worth the scorch, or poor enough to be the obvious leftover.

• 04

  The lone seven keeps a level shop

  Six values come in pairs and the seven comes alone, so it never pays twice — but when the two plates weigh exactly the same at closing, the baker holding it keeps the shop. It was added because a fair cut between fair cutters converges on fairness: about a fifth of measured shops used to end drawn, and now none of them do. In 500 shops between the top two rungs, 70 were decided on the seven.

• 05

  The shop’s stock is public

  The sixteen pastries are printed on the box: which partners are still unseen is countable by anybody who bothers, and the strongest opponent bothers. The box’s ORDER is the only secret, and the view carries none of it.

• 06

  Taught plate by plate

  Six steps: the divide, the gap, the choose, the burnt, the lone seven — and then the whole shop to yourself.