The Pebble Story
Many years ago in asmall Indian village, a farmer had
the misfortune ofowing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.The moneylender, who was old and ugly,fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So heproposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer'sdebt if he could marry his daughter.
Both the farmer andhis daughter were horrified by the
proposal. So thecunning money-lender suggested that
they let providencedecide the matter.
He told them that hewould put a black pebble and a
white pebble into anempty money bag. Then the girl
would have to pick onepebble from the bag. If she picked theblack pebble, she would become his wife and herfather's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the whitepebble she need not marry him and her father'sdebt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to picka pebble, her father would be thrown intojail.
All the villagers werestanding on a pebble strewn
path in the farmer'sfield. As they talked, the moneylender bent overto pick up two pebbles.
As he picked them up,the sharp-eyed girl noticed that
he had picked up twoblack pebbles and put them into
the bag. He then askedthe girl to pick a pebble from the bag.Now, imagine you were standing in the field.
What would you havedone if you were the girl? If you
had to advise her,what would you have told her?
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Careful analysis wouldproduce three possibilities
1. The girl shouldrefuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl shouldshow that there were two black
pebbles in the bag andexpose the money-lender as a
cheat.
3. The girl shouldpick a black pebble and sacrifice
herself in order tosave her father from his debt and
imprisonment.
Take a moment toponder over the story. The above
story is used with thehope that it will make us
appreciate thedifference between lateral and logicalthinking.
The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional
logical thinking.
Think of theconsequences if she chooses the above
logicalanswers.
What would yourecommend to the Girl to do?
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Well, what she did was
The girl put her handinto the moneybag and drew out a
pebble. Withoutlooking at it, she fumbled and let it
fall onto thepebble-strewn path where it immediately
became lost among allthe other pebbles.
"Oh, how clumsyof me," she said. "But never mind, if
you look into the bagfor the one that is left, you
will be able to tellwhich pebble I picked."
Since the remainingpebble is black, it must be
assumed that she hadpicked the white one. And since
the money-lender darednot admit his dishonesty,
the girl changed whatseemed an impossible situation
into an extremelyadvantageous one.
MORAL OF THE STORYMost complex problems do have a
solution. It is only that we don't attempt to think