Stop cheating, Johnny!

When Johnny’s history teacher suspected he had copied Mary’s paper, he wasn’t ready to admit defeat. The teacher pointed out that their answers to questions about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were identical. Johnny offered a perfectly innocent explanation: he had spent the previous evening studying. After all, two students could get the same questions right without either one cheating. For a moment, his argument sounded reasonable. Then the teacher reached the Louisiana Purchase question.

The question asked who was president when the purchase took place. Mary hadn’t managed an answer, writing, “I don’t know.” Johnny’s response, however, wasn’t a president’s name or even the same admission of uncertainty. He had written, “Me neither.” With those two words, his defense fell apart. Matching correct answers might have been a coincidence, but answering Mary instead of the question was considerably harder to explain. Johnny’s confidence had finally met its match: his own handwriting.