Not quite the same scenario, but Dantzig had the roles reversed on him by John von Neumann. From Wikipedia > When George Dantzig brought von Neumann an unsolve

Not quite the same scenario, but Dantzig had the roles reversed on him by John von Neumann. From Wikipedia > When George Dantzig brought von Neumann an unsolved problem in linear programming "as I would to an ordinary mortal", on which there had been no published literature, he was astonished when von Neumann said "Oh, that!", before offhandedly giving a lecture of over an hour, explaining how to solve the problem using the hitherto unconceived theory of duality.