Thinking "Out of the Box"

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. think
about them in a different way.

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