Think Out Of Box

20 Feb 2021.

Good Morning Readers.

What is an ingredient of developing good leaders, legends, champions, heroes in their respective fields? They have one thing in common. They think differently & out of the box. 

Let me share the inspiring story on the same subject

 Hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender.  

The moneylender, who was old and ugly, dreamed of the merchant’s beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain deal with the merchant

He said he would abstain from the merchant’s

debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal suggested.

The 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. 

But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into the penitentiary.

They were standing 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.

Time to think and pl revert with your answers back to me by commenting???

What would you have done if you were the girl?

Let's understand and try to find out different analysis scenarios with different three possibilities.

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a fraudster.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking.

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 incompetent 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. Since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an advantageous one.

 Most complicated problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way. This is termed as out of the box.