Guess what's in the safe?

I don't know but doesn't it make you want to press your face against the cold steel and listen for whatever safe-thieves listen for?

Riddles are fun until they keep you from getting something you really want and need.

One of my friends once locked his laptop to a desk and completely forgot the 4-number combination to unlock it.  He had to give a big presentation in about 4 hours and it was back in the day when thumb drives weren't around.  

Sweat started to pool on his brow.  The creases in his forehead deepened.  With chin in hand he puzzled over the riddle that faced him.

How the heck was he going to get this laptop where it needed to be in a few hours?

Go to a hardware store and by a bolt cutter?  Nope.  The lock is connected to the hardware of the laptop.  

Call the manufacturer of the lock to see if there's a way to open it without the combo?  Maybe.  Probably an unlikely fix.

Just leave it there and wing it.  Nope.  Too much detail to remember.

Aha!  Then, the difficult answer came.  But, it wasn't a "yes!" aha but a "oh, crap!" aha.  My friend realized that the best option would be for him to manually go through each number.  With 10,000 combination options at 3 seconds per combination tried, well that's at least 8 hours of trying.  But, he thought on average the number isn't going to be at the end so he could probably find it in 4 hours, maybe less if he's lucky.  

Still..."CRAP!"  

0001, 0002, 0003...0923, 0924, 0925...1109, 1110, 1111...

Then..."click" it opens!  

Why am I telling you this story?  Because addiction is a riddle.  Addiction is a laptop locked to a desk and time (read: life) is running out.