Fantasy In Miniature

“Listen,” the old man said. He spoke in a low, oddly carrying whisper, and the young man drew nearer to better hear him. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Well, that’s an interesting question,” the young man replied. “I mean, can you?”

“Er, beg pardon?”

“Obviously you’re capable of speech,” the young man said. “We share a common language and my ears are in good working order. Unless there is something peculiar that stops you from telling secrets in general or one secret in particular, it seems like the answer would be yes, you can tell me a secret.”

“Oh, well, I suppose what I meant was, would you like to know…”

“Of course, then we’re left with a bit of a paradox,” the young man said. “So long as you know it and I don’t, we can say that a piece of information is ‘a secret’ to me. But once you’ve told it to me, the veil is ripped away and it’s a secret no longer. So can you tell me a secret? I suppose that the answer to that question really depends on at what point the secret ceases to be a secret and becomes common knowledge. Is it when you start to tell it? When you finish? The point at which I understand what it is that I’m hearing? If you tell me, and later I forget, does it become a secret again?”

“You know what? Never mind,” the old man said.