The shell game dates back to the ancient world, Egypt, Rome, Greece. It is depicted in European paintings from the Middle Ages.
The game requires a pea and three shells, walnuts will do, but thimbles, cups, whatever is handy and covers the pea. This worldwide street swindle is usually played on a mat lying on the ground, sometimes a cardboard box.
The person handling the shells and pea is called the thimblerigger. He begins the game by placing the pea under one of the shells, then quickly shuffles the shells around. The Thimblerigger takes bets on the location of the pea. Maybe double your money back. The Thimblerigger's trick is practiced sleight of hand, removing a pea from under a shell and placing it under any other shell undetected by the mark.
Some of the excited gamblers may be part of the trick, working for the Thimblerigger. Such insiders are called shills. They also may serve as lookouts for the police and serve as muscle to intimidate marks who become unruly. One shill may pretend to disclose a winning strategy to the mark, needless to say, just a ruse to get the mark to place a large bet.
Any player who is suspected of understanding the trick, or does not place a bet and just wants to watch, will be quickly edged away from the table by the shills or the muscle, according to wikipedia.
"The Conjurer," painted by Hieronymus Bosch, shows a cups and balls routine, a variation of the shell game. A pickpocket, working for the conjurer, is robbing the spectator who is bent over.
The shell game can still be encountered on the streets of modern New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Cairo, and Washington, D.C. Politicians a
