Ten Friends

Ten friends went to take a dip in the river when they came out, they decided to count if everyone was safely out. They all lined up as one of them started counting and stopped at nine when the queue ended. They got worried if someone drowned. One of them stepped up and decided to count again. He too could only count to nine. All of them started crying for their lost friend.

A cap-seller was watching them. He had noticed that the man who counted always left himself out of the count. He asked to do the count but the friends refused as they thought he was illiterate. "Okay fine. It's getting hot, so put on these caps," he said. The friends agreed. "Now keep the caps on ground and count them," he added.

The friends followed his words and this time, they were able to count to ten. "The caps are ten in number which means so are we. Let's buy these magic caps." they all agreed.