Stickup
It isn't too hard to outsmart a machine. Any machine. All you need to do is figure out its weak spot. You can put a phone out of commission by dialing a number and never hanging up, since only the originating instrument can break the connection in a local call. What is a computer except an overdeveloped phone?
The compu-teller at the bank was supposed to be foolproof, so there were no guards. I walked into a booth, set up my apparatus, clipped two leads to the alarm wires and pushed the button for service.
The screen came on. DEPOSIT OR WITHDRAWAL? the words flashed, after I gave my account number.
"Withdrawal," I said. "One hundred thousand dollars."
ACCOUNT INSUFFICIENT, it flashed. Sharp, that machine.
"Listen, wirebrain," I said. "I have affixed a 20,000 volt electron bomb to your alarm terminal. Now you either spit out the change in thousand-dollar bills pronto, or I'll set the bomb off and do half a million dollars worth of damage to your circuitry. Activate your alarm and that will trigger it automatically. So which is it going to be—one hundred G to me, or five hundred G to the repair contractor, who's a bigger crook than I am? Remember, you're programmed for economy. You have five nanoseconds to decide."
Sure, they scotched that dodge after that, but I was long gone. When I need more dough, I'll figure a new wrinkle.
Dear H:
This is close, but the accent is on cleverness rather than action. Have you tried it on the literary market? They sometimes appreciate cleverness, provided they don't understand it.
Use an irrelevant title for them.