Stockton wrote "The Discourager of Hesitancy" in 1885, in response to questions about "The Lady, or the Tiger?" The story begins in the arena of the earlier story, with one of the audience members leaving just as the young man opens the right-hand door. The departing spectator then poses another open-ended question to the readers.

"The Knife That Killed Po Hancy" is a story published by Stockton in 1889 about a lawyer who cuts himself with a knife that had earlier killed a Burmese bandit. Once cut, the lawyer alternates between being mild-mannered and being daring and powerful.

"The Catbird Seat," published in 1945, is a humorous story by James Thurber about a man who plots the dismissal of a loud, overbearing woman in his workplace in such a way that nobody can believe that he has instigated her departure.

"The Celebrated Jumping...