This week, a fascinating fact from the world of entertainment is all about Rock, Paper, Scissors, the classic playground game that has solved many a disagreement. Fairer than a coin toss (because you are the sole person responsible for the outcome), how much would you bet on a game? Probably not $20 million, but that’s exactly what happened back in 2005.

The story begins with an eccentric millionaire by the name of Takashi Hashiyama, the CEO of Japanese electronics manufacturer Maspro Denkoh. Looking to auction off a number of paintings owned by the corporation including works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, he couldn’t decide between the two big auction houses – Sotheby’s or Christie’s? When it comes to selling items of exceptionally high value, in this case $20 million worth, auction houses often jostle to be given the go ahead. They can waive certain fees, negotiate a lower commission, etc., all to ensure that they are given the opportunity to sell the works.

Even so, Hashiyama couldn’t pick between the two and instead opted for a rather unique approach to choosing which house would sell the painting. A game of rock, paper, scissors worth up to $20 million to the winning side. Often a collection might be split between the auction houses but Hashiyama was adamant that this was not to occur in this particular case. As such, the rules were sent to both Sotheby’s and Christie’s on Thursday; he wrote that the choice of rock, paper or scissors would be made on the following Monday when each auction house should send a representative to submit their decision.

Eventually, she spoke to Nicholas Maclean, the International Director of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department, who had two eleven-year-old daughters, Flora and Alice, who were more than willing to help out.

As self-confessed experts in the game due to playing it every day at school, they said that the strategy was obvious – “Everybody knows you always start with scissors.”, said Alice. They went on that rock is way too obvious to go for (because hey, everybody picks scissors!) and at least scissors beats paper, which is what others might go for if they want to try and think ahead of the other team, whom they expect to choose rock. Flora added, “As beginners, scissors was definitely the safest…and if another round was required, the correct play would be to stick to scissors. Everybody expects you to choose rock.”

When Monday arrived, the representatives of the two auction houses arrived at Hashiyama’s office in Tokyo. They were told to write down their choice on a piece of paper before handing it over to a member of Hashiyama’s accounting team. The result? Sotheby’s went for paper whilst Christie’s took the girls’ advice and went for scissors. After selling the paintings, the total amount of profit for the auctioneer was roughly $2.2 million. Not only that, Alice Mclean was lucky enough to be quoted in that week’s Time magazine under ‘Quotes of the Week’; nestled among the Pope, the American President and Arnold Schwarzenegger was “Everybody knows you go scissors.”