A practical joke will
538 reports:
Millar described his will as “necessarily uncommon and capricious” because he had “no dependents or near relations.” What Millar lacked in heirs, though, he made up for in cash and property. In addition to his work as a lawyer, Millar amassed a net worth of more than $10 million (in today’s Canadian dollars)1 through a series of investments, including the property that would eventually be used for the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, one of the busiest crossings between the United States and Canada. He wanted to give that wealth away.
But he wanted to do it in as roguish a way as possible. Millar started off by giving shares in a jockey club to gambling opponents and shares in a brewery to teetotalling religious leaders.
Heh I like it.
The religious leaders have to actually participate in its management to get the shares!
Then he left his house in Jamaica to three men who hated one another, on the condition that they own it together.
Did they have to live there also?
But those were just a prelude to the big finish. In clause 10, Millar revealed a biology and math challenge that would change the lives of dozens of Toronto families. The remainder of his fortune — about $9 million — would be bequeathed a decade later to “the mother who has since my death given birth in Toronto to the greatest number of children as shown by the registrations under the Vital Statistics Act.” If there were a tie, he wanted his fortune to be divided equally among the winners.
I can see him chuckling away at the thought of scores of families all trying to have as many babies as possible to win his money.