There is always a way out

Many hundred years ago in a small town of India, a merchant had a misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant’s beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forget the debt if he could marry the merchant’s 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 pot. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the pot. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and her father debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not to marry him and her father’s debt would be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into prison.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant’s garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he picked up two black pebbles and put them into the pot. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the pot.
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 the pebble. After her decision her father would be thrown into prison. She didn't want to hurt her father.
2.      The girl should show that there were two black pebbles into the pot and exposes the moneylender as a cheat.  However after her decision her father would be thrown into the prison being charged on not paying the debt on time.
3.      The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Picture: Pinterest.com


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 pot and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and it if fall onto the pebble strewn path where if immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.
“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, you look into the pot 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 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.

Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think them in a different way. 
Location: Kathmandu 44600, Nepal

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

STUTTERING: The Conclusion

Image
Real Cause of Stuttering Stuttering can be considered as an iceberg and the speech disorder only represents the tip of the iceberg. You are neither a sick person nor there is anything wrong on your tongue. Your stuttering is not like a broken bone. If the bone is broken, it remains broken all 24 hours and causes continuous pain. The fracture does not come in front of some people and goes away in some other situations in the same day. If your stuttering was because of a tongue defect then like the broken it would too happen with the same intensity everyday everywhere. But your stuttering is not because of a defective tongue as it comes and goes depending upon who you are talking to. It’s only a fear of being judged or ridiculed which causes stuttering.  Dr. Edward Conture, professor of speech pathology at Syracuse University, New York, talks about what causes stuttering “things that causes stuttering may be, and probably are, quite different from the things that keep i...
Read more

Leaders must be Readers

Image
Reading books is a major key to success. The mega-rich and successful peoples like Bill Gates and Elon Musk devote extraordinary amounts of their time to reading. Musk even attributes his knowledge of how to build rockets to his reading habits. The way to success leads through books and learning. If you want to be successful, you have to read books. There is no alternative to it.   A book is literally the words, the ideas, the mindsets, the advice, and even the experience of another person wrapped into a convenient, portable always available collection of papers. 75% of self-made millionaires have even reported reading at least 2 books a month. The true benefits of reading are that you can pick and choose who you want to add to your inner group of influence that will eventually effect who you become a person. There are lots of books by successful people in nearly all topics. Ideas, mindsets and words are all waiting to be shared. Studies have proven that reading can...
Read more