ベッシーおばさんは、甥や姪を訪問するのが大好き。しかしながら彼女の親類は国中に散らばっている。

問題は、彼女がどんなに彼らに会うのがすきでも、彼女は飛行機が嫌いだ。どんなに皆が飛行機は安全な乗り物だと主張しても、彼女は誰かが爆弾を持っているかもしれない、と心配している。

飛行機の安全性に関する本を読んでも、スチュワーデスの安全確認の話を聞いても、毎回旅が近づくと心配になってくる。最後に彼女の家族が具体的な数値を示そうと、知り合いの保険会社の人に会わせた。

彼女は疑いの眼差しで、「誰かが爆弾を持って搭乗する確率を教えて」と聞いた。保険計理人は表を見ながら「おそらく５０万回に１回」と答えた。

彼女は頷きながら、ちょっと考え、「では同じ飛行機に二人が別々に爆弾を持って搭乗する確率は？」保険計理人は、やはり表をチェックして、「非常に小さい。１０億回に１回くらい。」ベッシーは頷いた。

その日から、彼女は毎回飛ぶとき、爆弾を持って乗っている。

Aunt Bessie loved to visit her nieces and nephews. However, she had relatives all over the country.

The problem was that no matter how much she enjoyed seeing them, she hated flying. No matter how safe people told her it was, she was always worried that someone would have a bomb on the plane.

She read books about how safe it was and listened to the stewardess demonstrate all the safety features. But she still worried herself silly every time a visit was coming up.

Finally, the family decided that maybe if she saw the statistics she'd be convinced. So they sent her to a friend of the family who was an actuary.

"Tell me," she said suspiciously, "what are the chances that someone will have a bomb on a plane?"

The actuary looked through his tables and said, "A very small chance. Maybe one in five hundred thousand."

She nodded, then thought for a moment. "So what are the odds of two people having a bomb on the same plane?"

Again he went through his tables.

"Extremely remote," he said. "About one in a billion."

Aunt Bessie nodded and left his office.

And from that day on, every time she flew, she took a bomb with her.