alanback: You would never be indifferent to the amount of pencils that you want. You would never want less than one pencil if you asked for one. And if you wanted more than one pencil you would always be more specific than to ask to borrow a pencil.
Thad: "have you ever lost a game of backgammon?" is no different. If you want to know more specifically then you would always ask a more specific question.