Rings of Alexandria by Larry Barnowsky

Effect: A deck of cards and an ancient counting device are introduced. The magician turns his back and gives instructions to two spectators. A deck of cards is freely cut and one spectator places any number of cards into his pocket. The remaining cards are dealt into 4 piles and any leftover cards are added to the pocketed cards.

Spectator 1 takes any two piles and combines them and spectator 2 does the same with the remaining 2 piles. Spectator 1 deals his cards into three piles and sets aside any remainder less than three. Spectator 2 deals his cards into five piles and sets aside any remainder less than five. While his back is still turned, the magician asks the first spectator to move from left to right five times the number of rings as he has remainder cards. That is he is to move no rings, 5 rings, or 10 rings from the left side Of the device to the right side. The second spectator now moves from left to right a number of rings matching the number of remainder cards he has. He moves none or up to 4 rings.

The magician turns around and asks the spectator to read the embossed number in the wood on the top ring on his left. He asks the spectator to count the number of cards in his pocket. The number of cards in the pocket and the engraved num

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