Agent F2X had been trained always to obey without question orders from the Time Lords, so when he was ordered to travel into the past and blow up a certain designated building, he set his co-ordinates to an appropriate time and place and set out.
On arriving there, however, he was surprised to find merely a shallow crater, which was already being colonised by a few weeds. Clearly, the building had already been destroyed, probably some weeks or months earlier. While he was standing there in puzzlement, a man approaching him, and after a few casual comments about the desolation before them asked, "Haven't I seen you here before?" Covered in confusion, Agent F2X recalibrated his return to his own space/time location and made his report to a Time Lord.
"The mistake was yours," came the reply. "Your co-ordinates were set wrong. You arrived at your destination fifty earthdays later than you should have done, after the building had been destroyed. So now you must return there, but at the correct date, and carry out your task as instructed."
"But," replied F2X in confusion, "surely the task has been done? I saw with my own eyes that the building had been destroyed!"
"In that timeline, yes; but only because you returned. So proceed with your orders."
"But the building might have been destroyed by someone else! And why do I have to return now? Surely the task can be done by anyone, and at any time in the future?"
There was no reply.
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