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Article 04 - Out of Box

The document tells a story about a merchant who owes a debt and the moneylender offers to forgive the debt if the merchant's daughter marries him. The daughter finds a way to avoid marrying the moneylender by pretending to pick a pebble from a bag containing two black pebbles, tricking him into admitting there was only one pebble left.

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skkuumar
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22 views2 pages

Article 04 - Out of Box

The document tells a story about a merchant who owes a debt and the moneylender offers to forgive the debt if the merchant's daughter marries him. The daughter finds a way to avoid marrying the moneylender by pretending to pick a pebble from a bag containing two black pebbles, tricking him into admitting there was only one pebble left.

Uploaded by

skkuumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Worth a read the great story on Think out of box.

One can use this story in many areas and purposes..


⚡

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
beau ful 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 s ll 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 no ced
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 possibili es:

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 le ,
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 situa on into an advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Most complex problems do have a solu on, some mes we have to n think about them in a different
way.

Thinking "Out of Box"...🕎

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