Take five double blank cards. Write on them in bold letters - CIGARETTE, WATER, WATER, SWEETS, and any cold drink say, COCA-COLA. Mark the cards with WATER written over on the back so that you can identify the same looking at its back. Stack the card faces down with WATER on top followed by CIGARETTE, and the rest in any order. Put this stack of cards in your wallet. Find a small watertight container, which fits inside a regular size Cigarette packet without disfiguring the packet. I use a small threaded stainless steel snuffbox that can hold two-teaspoonful water. Fill the small container with sufficient water and put the lid securely on. Then place it inside an empty cigarette packet. Cover the Cigarette packet with a hanky and put inside your breast pocket. PRESENTATION: Bring out the hank-covered packet of cigarettes, casually (but carefully) place it over the table announcing it a ‘surprise gift’. Remove the cards from the wallet and hold them face - up. Say, “this is not a simple magic. Rather it is an ‘offer’ of an item that has to be selected magically.” Spread the cards in a fan to show the audiences the names of different items keeping top two cards CIGARETTE and WATER neatly squared together. Close the fan and turn the card faces towards you. Now casually mix the cards and at the same time call the names written over the same repeatedly to hammer it in their mind. In the process, you bring WATER and CIGARETTE cards in fourth and fifth position from top of the face up stack. Turn the stack of card face down and hold squared in the left hand. You now turn the top card over, in reality you double turn over the top two cards as one and the WATER shows up. You comment it could not be a good gift or an offer. Therefore, you will discard it from the rest items. You pocket apparently the WATER card but unknown to them the CIGARETTE card also goes along with behind the WATER. You are now left with COLD DRINK, SWEETS, and WATER (which they believe as the CIGARATTE) cards. Cards are still faces down and you will have to force the WATER by your favourite method. Since the card is marked it is easy for you to identify. Any way, after the selection is made, you turn over the other two cards and SWEETS and COLD DRINKS will show up. As all have seen you to put the WATER card away in your pocket, they will naturally guess the selection as the CIGARETTE. Without turning the card over unwrap the hanky and show the packet of cigarette. You offer the same to the helping assistant but as he reaches for it, you comment, “Just a moment. Every time I make this magical offer, I loose some money. Will you mind if I try a bit of magic instead?” Smartly tap the selected card and turn it over… WATER, it says! “Well my friend, since you had almost got a packet full of cigarettes, I will consider your case and allow you to have the contents inside this cigarette box.” Give the Cigarette packet to him who to his utter surprise finds the small container filled with water inside. Ed Note… Of course, you have your own way of forcing, but you may find the following one easy and effective. Hold the three cards face down and casually mix them, finally bringing the card marked WATER on top of the three-card stack. Say, you will spell the word ‘offer’ and for each letter shift one card from top to bottom of the stack, you are holding. After completion of the word, you will discard the next card. This you will repeat until you have left with the single card and that will be the selection. If you correctly follow, you will always find the WATER as the final selection. Instead of ‘offer’ you may use the word ‘magic’ with the same result, i.e. any five lettered suitable word will do.
