The girl and the black stone

Once upon a time in ancient times, in small village in India. There was an unlucky farmer. The unlucky farmer barrow money from an ugly old man who likes the farmer’s daughter so he proposed a bargain “ If he marry the daughter, He won’t want the money back.” So the farmer and his daughter felt afraid, so the old man suggest that he will let the farmer and his daughter to their destiny to do. He said that “ he will put two stones in money’s bag, one is white and the other is black and the girl should take one

1- If she took the black stone, the old man will marry her and give up her father's loan.

2- If she took the white stone, the old man won’t marry her and give up her father's loan.

3- If she reused to take any, her father will go to jail.

All of village residents were standing on a pebble-strewn path in the farm. The old man took 2 black pebbles from the ground and put them into the bag, but the girl was looking clearly toward him so she noticed. Then, he asked the girl to take one.

Imagine you were there, what do recommend to do?

If we analysis the situation would produce three possibilities:

1-The girl would refuse to pick the stone.

2-The girl should prove there are 2 black stones in the bag and the people will discover that the old man is a cheater.

3-The girl pick the black and sacrifice herself to save her father from his loan and jail.

A moment of hope in this story, that’s showing us the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl’s problem can’t escape if we used the traditional logical thinking.

Think of the results that will occur if the girl chose the logical answer questions at the top.

Once again, what do recommend doing?

The girl picked one stone from the bag, but she didn’t open her hand to see which color did she pick? She fall down and lost the stone so everybody decided to see which stone was remain in the bag. Obviously, it will be the opposite of other stone that she just lost it. They saw that the black stone was reminder so she picked the white.

Lessons learned from this story:

There is a solution to complex problems, but we are not trying to think. Work smart and do not think so hard.

I translated it from Arabic to English

http://popekirillos.net/forums/showthread.php?p=99770