USELESS TREASURE HUNT A.K.A "Believe It Or Not" Treasures Hunt

PETALING JAYA 25 OCT 08: Every now and then, we will take part in a hunt that baffles logic. Many of those hunts were due to inexperience in organising treasure hunts or had sinister hidden agendas - I think. Sadly, while we are aware of them - we still take part in such hunts (how else to know that they are dubious?).

However, today, we took part in a hunt that was certainly not organised by anyone inexperienced and certainly not by anyone with a hidden agenda. It was a clean, properly organised hunt by a respectable COC with handsome prizes too!

Don't get me wrong - what I am about to share with you, is not meant to belittle or criticise the COC or the hunt itself. There's just something amusing about it that must simply be shared.

There were 5 treasures requested and each one of them scored 10 points - a total of 50 points. The total hunt score was 102 (including a bonus). Amazing, wasn't it?

And if 4 or all of them were correctly submitted in the first of two locations - the team got another 2 bonus points! AND the order of submission was one of the 3 tie-breakers - the earlier wins the tie.

With so much emphasis and weight put on the treasures and their role in tie-breakers - one would think the treasures must be really something valuable, tough to crack or to obtain.

And what were they? Hold on to your chairs now ...

T1. A name card with all team members' names written on the card.
Many deciphered it as a pin-card (whatever that was) or interpreted the clues to mean that one had to hand in more than one card - more precisely, one per team member.

The only acceptable answer : ONE NameCard with All Names On It.
How could one possibly benefit from a card like that?

T2. An unusable pen.
If the COC was able to write with it - the team got ZERO points.
There was absolutely no trick in the question - it was just simply "Do You Believe It Or Not".Is there a recycling campaign going on that we are not aware of? Or maybe some big pen company is giving a "1 for 1 trade-in" offer?

I was told, that all "broken" pens were returned to the teams - but I do not know if any team had actually submitted a good pen. I did hear that some teams lamented about having to destroy a perfectly working favourite pen just for this! Ouch!

T3. RM5 worth of coins!
Why not just ask for RM5 in notes? Someone is planning to feed the machines in Genting or what? Or maybe, it has been a huge problem for someone with parking meters - and don't ever want to be caught again without enough change?
And the trouble we had to go through to get them - the shopowners refused to give us change for RM1.00 not to mention Rm5.00. We had to appeal to customers of a mamak restaurant (literally shouting out to all of them) to help - "Please give me your 10-sen coins - I need lots of them for a competition - please help!" And they did! One of us even had to negotiate with a newspaper vendor - "I beli NST, you bagi tukar shilling okay?" "Itu, Okay".

T4. 5 Pieces of Dry Leaves (Daun Kering)
Nothing more to say! Lost for words!T5. Ensure the "I am having fun!" bumper sticker given out by the "Fun Hunt People" was stuck on the bumper of the team's car, sighted at the start of hunt and by the end of the hunt. As far as I know, there was no inspection done at both times - maybe very discreetly - that I don't know.

Here is what I think the COC wanted to do with them:

Rubbed two broken pens together over the dry leaves until a spark started a small fire. Not to worry if the 1st two did not work, there were plenty more.
Then, for a really good bon-fire, threw in all the name cards. And when things got hot, danced around the fire, threw the coins into the air and watched them land on the bonfire to send sparks all over the place creating a ground firework! And while waving exact replicas of the bumper stickers - stuck around long enough to tell the curious onlookers (if any) - "We are The Fun Hunt People Having Fun!"

So fellow hunters - now, please tell us - what on earth was the COC really thinking of doing with such "useless" treasures? Share with us your most creative guesses - before the COC decides to reveal the truth and spoil our chances of "Having Fun"!