TWO PEBBLES

A farmer owed a huge sum of money to a village moneylender. The ageing moneylender, who fancied the farmer's daughter offered to forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. However, the cunning money-lender made it look like a fair deal. He told them that he would put a black and a white pebble into an empty money bag. If the girl picked the black pebble, she would have to marry him and if she picked the white pebble she need not marry him.

The moneylender picked up two pebbles from the pebble strewn path. 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 a pebble from the bag. It seemed like an impossible situation for the young girl.

The girl intentionally fumbled while drawing out a pebble from the moneybag and let it fall and be lost on the pebble-strewn path. "Sorry," she said. "But never mind, if you look at the one left in the bag, you will know which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it had to be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

This story seeks to make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma could not have been solved with traditional logical thinking. Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don't attempt to think. To be better at handling difficult situations, we need to think out of the box.

The limited choices we see may not all that be
to BE BETTER at solutions, set your thinking free

- Pravin-da