Numerical Pillow Talk

Volunteering at a summer camp, I am helping put together “pillow treats”: little candies with a nice note on them for the campers to find on their pillows before bed. As I’m adding the notes to the candies, I realize we are going to run out of candy well before we run out of notes. I go to the volunteer in charge of the pillow treats.

Me: “Hey, are there any more candies for the pillow treats?”

Volunteer: “No, I bought two packs of sixty and printed a hundred and twenty notes, so that should be enough.”

Me: “Well, we’re out of candies and we’ve got about twenty notes left.”

Volunteer: “What?! I know I ordered enough!”

We dig through the trash and pull out the bags that the candies came in. She points to a big circle with numbers in it printed on the front of the bag.

Volunteer: “See?! Sixty!”

Me: “…calories per serving.”

She stares at the bag blankly for a second before closing her eyes and laughing at herself in chagrin. I manage to locate the actual number of candies in the bag (fifty, located on the nutritional info panel), and we are able to supplement with a different kind of candy to finish the pillow treats.