quantia

Once upon a time there was a forest filled with bamboo trees. In this forest there was a tiny hut about a metre tall. Inside this hut lived a family of forest elves.

Every day the elf children would run and play in the forest. One of their favourite games was tying ribbons to trees. They would build intricate networks of ribbons of all colours, decorated with many patterns. Usually they just tied trees to themselves with the ribbons, but sometimes they would tie ribbons between two trees.

One day, one of the smaller elf children got lost in the bamboo forest. Wandering around, he noticed that the trees in a small area around him, in a rough circle around a very tall bamboo tree, were not tied to any trees further out in the forest. Since he was bored, he began examining the ways his siblings had tied the ribbons to the trees. He noticed that every tree which was not tied to itself had a ribbon that was tied to it and tied to the very tall tree in the centre. He also noticed that there were no ribbons tied around both the very tall tree in the centre and a tree which was tied to itself.

When he finally found his way back to the hut, it was very dark and his family was very worried. He told them about the grove of bamboo trees he had discovered, and none of them seemed to know where it could be. They all asked him questions. “How tall was the tree in the middle?”, asked one. Another one asked, “What colours were the ribbons?”. Finally, the youngest elf child raised his voice and asked, “Was the tree in the middle tied to itself?”. After a long pause, trying to remember if it was, he was finally able to answer correctly. What did he say?