Yoga Guru Test - Do You Pass?

Two wannabe gurus were washing dishes at the Ashram.

The dishes have to be clean for the 600 diners before 6pm meditation. Dinner starts at 5 pm sharp. Oh ho!

They are gonna have to hustle, to wash all the dishes in time for meditation.

Both of the wannabe gurus washing dishes are new to the Ashram. It's their first day.

This Ashram is a Beverly Hills Ashram, and it can afford a bank of 12 industrial dishwashers.

Each industrial dishwasher has a top and bottom drawer. Each drawer can take 25 plates and cutlery.

It takes 5 minutes to stack a drawer of dirty dishes.

When stacked full of dishes, etc, the drawers are pretty heavy. They are opened and closed hydraulically.

In order to make 6pm meditation on time, the wannabe gurus will need to work quickly.

The dishes are set to clean, after being stacked in the dishwashers. And then they are left in the dishwashers between meals.

The dishes need to be unstacked at the start of each meal, and taken to the servery, ready for that meals diners.

Each wannabe guru can unstack a dishwasher - full of cleaned dishes from the previous meal -  ready for food serving in 10 minutes. They only have access to the kitchen at 5pm exactly.

A load of 50 dirty dishes comes every 5 minutes, starting at exactly 10 minutes after meals start.

At 5pm sharply, the two wannabe gurus begin unstacking the first two dishwashers of clean dishes.

By 10 minutes after meal commences they've managed to unstack 2 dishwashers. Then one of the wannabe gurus switches to stacking the first load of dirty dishes.

The other wannabe guru keeps unstacking the clean dishes.

They work furiously at it.

6 pm comes. There are a number of dishwashers still to be unstacked (and some angry wannabe gurus who didn't get plates for their meal). There's also lots of dirty dishes to be stacked.

The two wannabes gurus miss meditation in order to finish up.

The next day the head guru calls the two wannabes into his office. He says "I notice that you both didn't make meditation last night. How come?".

One of the wannabes says, "Yes, sorry head guru, but we didn't have all the clean dishes out of the machines and all the dirty dishes in the machines."

"Oh", says the head guru. "Did you both unstack and then one of you switch to stacking when the first load of 50 came in?"

"Yes", they say.

"By my calculation", says the head guru, "there should have been two dishwasher drawers fully unstacked at 6 pm, with the other dishwashers being fully stacked with either dirty or clean dishes."

"Yes", say the wannabes. Eyes wide in awe at this feat of mathematical mastery.

"And the 2 drawers that were unstacked, they were in the same washing machine?"

"Yes", say the wannabes. Eying each other in astonishment.

"At 6 pm exactly, in what state was the top drawer of the machine with the 2 unloaded drawers?"

"It...was...closed", say the wannabes hesitatingly.

In a voice of doom, the head guru says, "Because you both missed meditation, you are cast out from this Ashram. One to the North and one to the South."

"Each of you may only return, when you can tell me why the drawer being closed, caused you to be cast out."

If you were one of the wannabe gurus, would you be able to go back to the Ashram? CU in class, J.