Hobbit-imagines/one shots

Miner math (PG)

Bofur sighed heavily as he stood in a room in one of the town of Men..some remote town that he couldnt remember the name of. A few days ago while in a tavern a couple of towns over , he overheard a few men talking about the need for some miners to help mine this region. This peaked Bofurs interest cause he was really low on money to feed him and his family. So with ale in hand he walked over to the group and struck up a chat with them.

"So I hear yeh talkin about some workers are needin fer a minin job?" he gave his best friendly smile...hoping they would be the nice sort towards a dwarf. He knew not all men were friendly to his kind in these parts and often would harrass dwarves that came around...his smile worked...they laughed at him a little bit, but gave him the info he was wanting plus a warning.

"This bloke isnt the nice kind to certain people..if yeh get me meaning master dwarf?" Bofur nodded in understanding as he bought them another round of ale with the small bit of coin he still had on him. So now here he was standing inside of the mining managers office, staring up at a very tall man who obviously didnt want to hire him..but knowing he needed workers. The man was staring Bofur up and down thinking ~Im not hiring a lazy old dwarf.~ suddenly an idea came to him..a test was just what he needed..hoping he wouldnt be able to answer the questions and then the man would be able to refuse him the job without any problems. So without any further delay he sat the hatted dwarf down and asked the first question.

"without using numbers, represent the number 9." the man smiled, believing the dwarf couldnt do it...starteled a little bit at the smile on Bofurs face.

"Dats easy." Bofur quickly drew 3 oak trees on the paper.. the boss man raised his eyebrow.

" What in tarnation is that?"

"Tree, n, tree, n, tree makes 9" Bofur smiled up at the incredulous man.

"Fair enough. Second question..same rules, but this time represent 99." the man thought he had the dwarf stumped as Bofur stared into space for a while..then with a smile Bofur makes a smudge on each tree.

"Dere yeh go sir." Bofur sees the man scratch his head in confusion as he stares down at the drawing.

"How on earth do you get that to represent 99?" challenging the dwarfs intellegence..feeling a bit uneasy as Bofur just smiles up at him.

"Each tree is dirty now. So its dirty tree, n dirty tree, n, dirty tree..dats 99." now the man is looking really worried that hes going to have to hire the dwarf..but he thought of a foolproof plan.

"Alright, question three...same rules once again, but this time represent the number 100."he smiles smugly  down at the dwarf as Bofur thinks for a moment.

"I got it!" Bofur shouts, then he starts making a little mark at the base of each tree. "dere yeh go sir..100."the man leans over and looks at Bofurs attempt and he thought ~ this time I got him.~

"Go on master dwarf..you must be crazy if you think that represents 100." his voice was a bit condensending as Bofur leaned forward..pointing to the marks at the tree bases.

"A little dog comes along and craps by each tree, so now yeh got.. dirty tree an a turd, dirty tree an a turd, an dirty tree an a turd..which makes a 100! so when can I start workin?" Bofur looked at the stunned mans face with a big smile..knowing he outwitted the man.

MORAL of Story: that will teach him that size doesnt matter...its how you use it that counts.