[Pollster1]

“You have a bouquet of flowers. All but two are roses, all but two are daisies, and all but two are tulips. How many flowers do you have?” (asked at Epic Systems).

I have two violets. All but two are roses/daisies/tulips.

Alternately, I have three flowers, one of each.

As with most business questions, there are multiple right answers. I'm there as a statistician, so the question is - How many do you want me to have? [Note: I'm an honest mathematician and don't play with the results, but that answer would get a laugh.]

[patton]

a=b=1
aa=ab
aa-bb=ab-ab
(a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b)
a+b=b
2=1