Fictoid: if you want the right answer, ask the right question

the supernatural entity sat in the bar / nursing a drink / singing this song of woe:

It's always the same, billions and billions of times.  Doesn't matter who, doesn't matter where, doesn't matter when; it's always the same deal, and it's always the same answer.

Here's what I offer them: I've got a job for you.  It will be hard work, but it will never require more than forty hours a week from you.  It may be difficult, at times distasteful, but it will never harm your body or soul.

It will be a meaningful job, a productive job.  No one will be made to suffer in any way because of this job.

In return for forty hours a week of your best effort -- and there are benchmarks to determine this -- you may have anything and everything you want.

Let me repeat that:  Anything and everything.  As many mansions as you like, as many yachts, private jets, food, drink, toys, whatever.  Things that haven't even been invented yet, things you can't even imagine will all be yours.

The catch?  Why, yes, there is a catch.  What ever you earn, the rest of humanity will get for free.  You may not tell anybody about your job, you may not take credit for their easy lives.  You will work thanklessly, anonymously, and for the rest of your life to provide a golden age for everyone else.

There is my offer:  A lifetime of toil in return for a lifetime free of want, but you will be the only person who has to work for it.

Am I angel or devil?  Your answer will reveal which you think I am.

And wouldn't you know it?

They all have

the same.

Damned.

Answer.

© Buzz Dixon

(updated August 8, 2018)