3 Sealed Envelopes

There is a popular joke about a US president-elect who calls on his outgoing predecessor and asks him for some invaluable advice that could help the new chap deal with any future crisis. The old man pulls out three sealed envelopes marked 1, 2 & 3 from the drawer of the famed Oval office desk and hands them over to his successor with the explicit instruction to open one letter, and that too only in the given sequence, when faced with a major crisis.

Lo and behold, within weeks of the new president’s assuming of office, his government is besotted with a big crisis. So he opens the letter marked #1 and a small paper slip inside reads “Blame it on me”. The president gladly blames the crisis on his predecessor and walks away fairly unscathed from the situation. Sometime later, another major crisis hits his presidency. Out comes envelope #2 and this time the tiny slip inside reads: “blame it on the Congress”. And he does, and manages to survive again but not without a fair share of battering and bruising.

Sometime later another crisis and out comes the third and final envelope and this time it reads:"Prepare three envelopes".