There’s no reason you cannot entrust this task to your robot henchmen. The best thing about robots is their efficiency and their inability to question orders. You call General Murch into your throne room and give the order for him to send forth his robotic forces. All that’s left to do now is to wait until they return from their three-day task.

* * *

Three days later, General Murch walks nervously into your throne room. “Dark Lord, Sir, the robots have failed.”

“Failed?” you ask. “How could they have failed?”

“Well, it seems that by the time they arrived, the artifact had already been stolen by Captain Awesome.”

“So what you’re telling me,” you say calmly, “is that the most powerful artifact in the known world is currently in the possession of my most troublesome foe?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Then go and get it from him!” you shout. General Murch turns to go, when a thought strikes you. “Wait a minute,” you say, and General Murch stops and turns around. “I’ve got a better idea.”

• Do you send your henchmen to burn the nearby peasant village to the ground?
• Do you send your henchmen to kidnap Captain Awesome’s girlfriend?