Once upon a time, a man went out into the world to gain his fortune.

He came to the Great Treasurehouse of All the World.  But it was guarded by the deathless wizard Malvecchio.

“You have one chance and one chance only,”  Malvecchio said.  “If you succeed, you enter, and all is yours.  If you fail, you are banished immediately and can never return.  Here is your chance–tell me the color of love.”

“Red,” the man said.

“No no no no no,” the wizard cackled with glee, “begone!”

The man settled down and had a son and told him all that befell.  When the son’s turn came to seek his forunte, he sought out the Great Treasurehouse of All the World and the deathless wizard Malvecchio.  But he knew not to say “red.”

“White,” he guessed.

“No!” Malvecchio chortled and—poof!–the son was also banished.

The son’s son guessed “green.”  Wrong.  After several generations they covered all the colors and moved on to concepts like “the color of spring.”

After 1000 generations, they had enough information to answer the question.  Even with their best efforts from generation to generation, though, they had let a slight inaccuracy creep in to their recollection.  They only had a 50% chance of getting it right.

Unfortunately the young man of that generation judged poorly and went off to seek his fortune with the wrong answer in mind.

It turned out not to matter, because only Malvecchio’s bones were there.  With enough time, even deathless wizards die.