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.
What
would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her,
what would you have told her? 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 lateral and logical thinking.
The
girl 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.
"Oh,
how clumsy of me," she said. "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.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way.
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