Mr. Gardner is facing the choice of dessert at his favorite restaurant The Erratic Chef. The cook tends to prepare great desserts, but is not very consistent. Mr. Gardner hates it when his choice for dessert turns out to be suboptimal. So he has kept elaborate statistics of all his past dessert experiences. This helps him each evening optimizing his chances to hit the best dessert.
The waitress reaches Mr. Gardner's table:
-- Shall I bring your apple pie?
-- Yes, if the banana pie is sold out and the choice is apple pie or cherry pie, I'll take the apple.
-- Actually there is banana pie.
-- If the choice is apple or banana, I still go for apple.
-- No sir, there is banana next to apple and cherry.
-- Oh, I see. In that case I take cherry.
Has Mr. Gardner gone nuts? Or can you think of a scenario that justifies Mr. Gardner's approach towards selecting his dessert?