Something for the Weekend

Don't worry, I'm not offering you anything strange or embarrassing. I just thought if lazing around in the sun/sheltering from the rain (delete where not applicable) this weekend gets a little boring, or if you're in danger of entering a vegetative state from watching too much boring tennis, that you might like something to exercise the grey matter a little. So I thought I'd let you all try out a little logic puzzle. Here goes....

Win a Million Quid (No! not really - it's just pretend)

Imagine that you're offered a chance to win a million pounds, by using your intelligence. How lovely that would be, eh? But of course, like all chances to win, there's a gamble: You must gamble your own stake and risk losing it.

The good news though, is that you're allowed to determine how large or how small the stake you gamble is. You can gamble as little as a pound, or as much as you like, if you think that will improve your chances of winning. In effect, you determine your own odds. That can't be bad, can it?

You're shown to the entrance to a room, and informed that inside the room is a million pounds, all in pound coins, laid out flat on a number of tables.

It's explained that almost all of the coins are lying tails side up; however, somewhere within the million coins are twenty that are lying heads up. 

The room inside is too dark to see which side up the coins are lying, but still light enough for you to see the coins.

You are not allowed to touch the coins yourself, but will be assigned a servant who will be at your disposal; he'll follow your instructions to the letter (but only as far as the rules allow.)

On entering the room, what you have to do first is to decide what your stake will be, and instruct your servant to move that number of pound coins onto a separate 'stake' table.

You can select whichever coins he moves from whichever of the other tables you choose, and each one selected will be moved so that it lies with the same side facing up as it originally did. 

Once your stake has been isolated on its own table, you can then instruct your servant to turn any number of coins over, either from the coins on the stake table or from any of the other tables.

When you've done this and you're happy that you're ready, then comes the reckoning.

If the stake table contains EXACTLY the same number of heads-up coins as the remainder of the fortune left on the other tables does, then the entire million pounds is all yours to take away, (though I hope you'll at least buy your unpaid servant a drink from your winnings.)

If however there is even as much as one heads-up coin difference, you have to match the number of coins on the stake table from your own pocket and forfeit that amount.

So what do you think? Could you win a million?

If you can work out the method of winning please don't put it in the comments below, because you'll spoil it for everyone else; instead email your solution with your name, to bartieblog@KirklandsIT.karoo.co.uk and I'll shower you with praise in the comments myself (or I can cast scorn upon you if you've got it wrong, but if I do that I won't do it publicly in the comments, I'll do it by return email, with the correct solution.) or if you give up you can just email me at the same address, for the solution if you like.