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telepathy - Looking for a story where the protagonist defends against mind reading by repeating a counting-out rhyme


Don't know much for sure about this story. I've never read it; only heard a review at some point in mid-nineties on Polish TV. The author may very well be Polish, but there's a chance it was a translation (Yup, I'm also asking elsewhere in Polish).


The story is set in the world with telepaths and the protagonist has secret information (or maybe is a secret agent - not sure about this) and keeps repeating a rhyme in his (her?) head which blocks telepathic prodding of their mind. One thing I'm pretty sure I remember is the rhyme in Polish (It's actually been stuck in my head since the 90s) - and in Polish it indeed rhymes (AABB - end of lines) so most likely the translation was not literal. Re-translated back to English it would be something like:



one - two - three and four
sultan liked bayaderes,
five - six - seven - eight
he liked to cock a snook at everyone.



and in Polish:




raz - dwa - trzy i cztery
lubił sułtan bajadery,
pięć - sześć - siedem - osiem
lubił wszystkim grać na nosie





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