Instant Mix of Lateral Thinking

This is how this simple village beauty in her twenties got her aged father out of the debts to the Village Headman by her instant recipe of lateral thinking and wit.

The father was neck deep in debts to the Village headman who proposed for his daughter for marriage and in reward waive off all debts. The father was furious as also his folks.

The shrewd 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. And that she cannot refuse to pick a pebble or else ????

They assembled 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.

The girl chose not to show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.

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 dare not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

By an instant mix of lateral thinking and wit. The traditional logical thinking could not have found a logical answer .

Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way.