The paper considers the well‐aired problem of the seller of a single‐issue evening newspaper who has to decide how many copies to order each day. A mathematical model is constructed, and solved with the aid of material normally covered near the start of courses in probability and statistics. The author's concern is, not so much to encourage paper‐sellers to make more profit, as to help pupils, through their teachers, to see some purpose in their early statistical studies. Suggestions are made for extending the basic problem to provide topics for further study as pupils become better acquainted with the subject.