During June 2005, hardware problems with ATITD's servers created an unusually high amount of downtime. As compensation, on July 14 Pharaoh announced that a gift -- which could be picked up at any School -- was available to all players who held a paid account during June.
Players who went to claim their gift found that they were offered their choice of five rewards:
Those players who chose the Stranger's Gamble received nothing, but instead were asked to select one of the Seven Disciplines. They were informed that, at the end of the offer period, the discipline that received the most votes would be the discipline to receive the next Test. As for the discipline that got the least votes, the players who picked it would receive a huge jackpot -- each of the other four gift options, in triple the amount (i.e. 3 extra days, 300 hours of offline time, 3 waypoints, and 3 cornerstones).
On July 27, 2005, the Stranger announced to Egypt the results of his game. In all, 157 players chose the Stranger's Gamble. The discipline of Thought received the most votes (34), and as a result Egypt was presented with the Test of the Bijou. The (unidentified) least popular discipline received only 13 votes, and each of those 13 players received their huge jackpot, each equivalent to 12 normal gifts.
Because 157 players forewent their gift in order to take part in the Gamble, and the equivalent of 156 gifts (13 x 12) were paid out in jackpots, the Stranger pronounced his Gamble "a beautiful puzzle, and one that you lost -- though to my surprise, only barely."