Effect: Have your friend hold a pencil between his two hands. Take out a dollar bill and fold it in half length-wise. Tell him that through sheer force of will, you will break the pencil with the dollar bill. Holding the dollar at one end, you karate-chop the pencil with the dollar bill, snapping it in two!
Secret: First, hand your friend a pencil and ask him to hold it very tightly (this is important) in the fists of each hand. Tell him to hold the pencil at the very ends, but securely.
You take out a dollar bill (or any note, for that matter) and fold it in half length-wise, that is so the fold is along the longer part of the bill. Hold the dollar in your hand, between your thumb and middle finger. Your first (pointer) finger should be free. The fold of the dollar is towards the floor.
Next, tell your friend, "I will now karate-chop this pencil in two, using my sheer will and this flimsy paper dollar bill!"
What you will do now is to bring down the dollar towards the pencil on three counts. So, you say, "One!", and you bring down the dollar fast towards the pencil, stopping short of contact. "Two!", doing the same thing.
Now, bring down the dollar again for "Three!", but as you do, stick your free index finger into the fold of the dollar! This will cause the pencil to break in two. You have just demonstrated that there is power in money!