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"Child's Play" is a 9,000-word short story by William Tenn, about a man who acquires a do-it-yourself cloning kit. It was first published in the March, 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

A box from the future is delivered to Sam, a present day lawyer. When Sam orders the box to open, he finds inside a Bild-a-Man set, apparently meant for superintelligent children. Sam plays around with it and reads the instructions. While babysitting for a neigbor, Sam uses the Bild-a-Man equipment to make an exact copy of the baby (which he then leaves at a foundling center, even though his creation has no belly button). Sam then resolves to use the machine to make a copy of a woman at work that he is attracted to, but who is engaged to another man, but first he decides to practice on himself. His own copy, however, quickly destroys the ‘incinerator’ that came with the Bild-a-Man set. Then a robot from the future shows up, explaining that the delivery was a mistake. But the robot must decide which man is the copy, to be destroyed, and which is the real Sam. Since the copy has been using its time to get dressed, and since the real Sam is still naked from the copying process, and since the robot knows that copies tend to be irrational, it decides that the copy is the real Sam, and Sam is the copy. The robot incinerates the real Sam, leaving the copy alive.

Reprints

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 9 (1947).