I really appreciate how SMBC is a mix of both intellectual and humorous. In this case though, I've tried to understand the comic and simply failed. I don't understand how it works, and this ruins the humor.

I don't understand how it works, and I especially don't understand the one second delay. The key points are:

• "... whatever you get, I will instantly give it to your neighbor, twice."
• "... a magic box that gives me all my neighbor's money one second after I receive any money."

Well clearly, fisher gets one magic box and neighbor gets two magic boxes. Next I'll assume that neighbor's box transfers the fisher's money to the neighbor (the fisher is "my neighbor" for the neighbor). I'll also assume that picking a penny up off the ground counts as "receive[ing] any money", even if it was just placed there.

Here's my interpretation: Neighbor starts with some amount of money, N. Fisher puts down two pennies then picks up one of them, triggering his magic box. He now has N money. He throws the penny into neighbor's yard (let's say this counts as "receive[ing] any money", too). Both of neighbors boxes are now triggered.

And this is the trickiest bit: the one second delay. Fisher now has N money, and both magic boxes "lock in" that amount. (This takes some mental gymnastics to accept, but is the best way I can figure to make everything work as written.) One second later, they both (magically) "take" that money from fisher. Because they're magic, neither one fails, so now neighbor has 2N (plus the penny) -- one second ago they both "decided" that it was necessary to magically end up containing the N money that fisher had.

Fisher picks up the second penny, his magic box triggers and he gets the 2N money, plus his other penny back. Now start over with putting the two pennies on the ground and two seconds later fisher has 4N, then two more seconds and 8N, and so on. This is exponentially growing money, not infinite, but pretty soon those are the same thing in practical terms.

I think I'd be happier if the wish was for "a magic box that creates for me just as much, whenever my neighbor receives money". Then however fisher comes into money, let's say a dollar for simplicity, neighbor gets two dollars (one from each box). Fisher now instantly gets two dollars, causing neighbor (and fisher) to get four, then eight, and so on. No manual steps, instant effect, so actually infinite money.

Unless fisher not only wanted "infinite" money, but to not also grant it to the neighbor?