Part I

Back in 2018 a friend of mine asked me to assist with a project that required some expertise in C++ programming. I had to work on-site in their office. They provided me with a dedicated computer with a user account for which the initial password was set to 111. I changed it to a much stronger password of my own invention derived from the trivial fact that 111 is a product of 3 and 37. I completed my task within a few weeks and they were able to continue with the rest of the project on their own.

Part II

Several year later that same friend turned to me with another request for an enhancement to the same project.

For my work I had to use the same computer with the same user account that had its password unchanged since I had set it as described in Part I.

This time my friend insisted that I accept remuneration for my work. I first had to assess the complexity of the project and quote a price. After some research I came up with an estimated duration of three months at a monthly salary of ~ AMD 1,200,000 which I “rounded” - with the purpose of introducing an element of fun - to AMD 1,234,567.89. This joke had the desired effect on their accountant and I didn’t expect anything more out of it. I would never have thought that it was going to end up as the most amazing coincidence in my collection of divine jokes.

So, bureaucracy being what it is, I was presented with a contract that explicitly stated the full amount that had to be paid to me for my consulting services:

3 × 1,234,567.89 = 3,703,703.67

If rounded to one decimal place it becomes 3,703,703.70 - three 37s!

And sure enough it was straightened out all by itself. During the first payment the mobile banking app was stuck when the amount was entered to two decimal places, hence they had to work around that limitation of the software by raising my actual “salary” by AMD0.01. Therefore my total payment for the job ended up at AMD3,703,703.70!

P.S.

I had also to sign an NDA that’s why I didn’t publish this account for more than two years (although I had recounted it to some of my acquaintances). But today I watched Veritasium’s video about the number 37, and I decided that this story doesn’t disclose any trade secrets covered by the NDA and may safely be declassified so that it can be submitted to Tom Magliery for inclusion on http://thirty-seven.org/.