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smugglers-story.md

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How to establish secure communication over insecure channel. Merkle's puzzles.

[[[name:smuggler section:78

It's a puppet show. There are two hills on the stage with country border between them. Law-abiding citizen is on the right hill. Smuggler enters the stage on the left.

SMUGGLER: Hey, you!

CITIZEN: Who? Me?

SMUGGLER: Do you like booze?

CITIZEN: Sure I do. And who are you?

SMUGGLER: I'm the person who will sell you some booze.

CITIZEN: What about cigarettes?

SMUGGLERS: Sure thing. Cheap Ukrainian variety for $1 a pack. Also Slovenian Mariboro brand.

CITIZEN: Thanks God! I am getting sick of our government trying to make me healthy!

Border patrol emerges from a bush in the middle of the stage.

PATROL: Forget about it, guys! This is a state border. Nothing's gonna pass one way or the other. You better pack your stuff and go home.

SMUGGLER: Ignore him. We'll meet later on at some other place, without border patrol around, and you'll get all the booze and cigarettes you want.

PATROL: Ha! I would like to see that. Both of you are going to end up in jail.

CITIZEN: He's right. If you tell me where to meet, he's going to hear that, go there and arrest us.

...

Smuggler has a list of possible places to meet:

  1. Big oak at 57th mile of the border.
  2. Lower end of Abe Smith's pasture.
  3. ...
  4. ...

He obfuscates each entry and shout them to the citizen in no particular order.

Citizen chooses one of the puzzles and de-obfuscates it. It takes him 10 minutes. The de-obfuscates message reads: "18. Behind the old brick factory."

CITIZEN (cries): Eighteen!

SMUGGLER: Ok, got it, let's meet there in an hour!

PATROL: Oh my, oh my. I am much better at de-obfuscation than that moron citizen. I've already got two messages solved. But one has number 56, the other number 110. I have no idea which one is going to be number 18. There's no way I can find the right one in just one hour!

The curtain comes down. Happy gulping sounds can be heard from the backstage.

]]]