🌏One day in 1999, a man walked into one of the supermarkets in California and asked to buy a sheer trifle... just over 12,000 cups of chocolate pudding. The kind like that....
To all the stunned looks from the clerks and their questions, he replied completely calmly:

— Are you sure you need exactly that many?

— Yes, I'll take everything that's in stock.

— How about just a couple of packs?

— No, I need it all. And also tell me where the nearest stores of your chain are.

— And what do you intend to do with them?

— I want to fly to Europe. For free.

Probably the clerks hesitated for a while, whether to call in people in white coats or security. But since the man wasn't drooling, didn't fall to the floor, and behaved frighteningly reasonable, they chose the “sell and cross yourselves” option. The clerks didn't believe his explanations, assuming the rich have their quirks—maybe he'll take a pudding bath.

The man loaded mountains of pudding into a minivan, drove around a few more stores, stuffing the vehicle to the limit, and left. No, I basically understand the clerks; it looks like formal madness or preparation for the end of the world, where the currency is chocolate slime.

Why did he decide on such a strange purchase, and even spend over $3,000 on it?

The thing is, the man who entered the store wasn't an ordinary sweet tooth, but... civil engineer David Phillips. And he truly decided to game the system and secure lifelong travel for himself.

David decided to step away from the usual “ignore the promotions” approach and get into mathematics. Like a true engineer, he carefully read the terms of the promotion on the packaging of frozen “Healthy Choice” products. It stated that for every 10 barcodes you could earn 1,000 airline miles.

For his brilliant plan, he found the cheapest item in the store that participated in the promotion—single pudding cups at 25 cents each.

At first glance it's trivial, but David quickly calculated: by spending just $25, he gets the equivalent of a ticket that costs many times more.

Executing the plan took considerable effort. David's wife initially thought he should be committed to a mental institution, as their whole house turned into a pudding warehouse. But when he showed her the calculations, she realized—this wasn't madness, it was a jackpot.

However a problem arose: physically ripping off 12,000 stickers in a short time was impossible. His fingers hurt, and there wasn't enough time.

And then David made a “knight’s move” that turned his scheme into a charitable act. He struck a deal with the “Salvation Army”: they help him peel those cursed labels, and he gives them all the pudding for free.

That was awesome!

Brilliant!

Cannon! Bomb! Firecracker!

In the end he not only got his barcodes, but also wrote off $800 in taxes for charity. The pudding fed those in need, and David sent a box of coupons to the airline’s headquarters.

The promotion managers probably rubbed their eyes when they saw the mail. But the terms are the terms. David Phillips received 1,250,000 airline miles in his account. Lifetime “Gold Client” status, priority boarding, and the ability to fly anywhere.

The man declared from the outset that he was a person who “hacked the matrix”, and became a legend among travelers.

Since then many years have passed, and David still flies. He has taken his family to Europe, Australia, the best resorts in the world. And all this—for those very cups that cashiers laughed at.

Today the story of David Phillips, known as The Pudding Guy, is considered one of the brightest examples of how attentiveness beats the system. He wasn’t even scared by the fact that everyone around looked at him as if he were insane.