Thread by @Sunil_Sawhney

I read an awesome short story on #OutOfBoxThinking .

Although I had read this earlier too, I enjoyed reading it again and also felt it to be #TooGoodNotToShare

I am sure you will also enjoy the read..

Here we go ..

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a Merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of Money to the Moneylender. 💰

The moneylender, who was Old and Ugly, fancied the merchant’s Beautiful Daughter 👱‍♀so he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the merchant’s
debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag.
⚫⚪

The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag.

If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven.

If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven.

But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant’s garden.

As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles.

As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag.

He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

Question..

What would you have done if you were the girl?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the, Difference between #LateralThinking and #LogicalThinking.

Now let’s see what this smart girl did …

She put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble.

Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles and screamed …

“Oh, how clumsy of me. how could I do that”.

“But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one.

AND

Since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an “Impossible situation” into an “Advantageous one”.

Smart thinking on her part … isn’t it ?

#MoralOfTheStory

Most Complex problems do have a Solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a Different way and this is what we end up calling
#OutOfBoxThinking

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed reading the story, please do share with those you care for🙏🙏