THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX (Cont.......)

(If you are new to my blog, please refer to my previous post: “Think Outside of the box”)

What are the logical answers and what is the answer as per lateral thinking?

Logical thinking can give us three answers:

1.   The girl should refuse to take a pebble. The result is her father              shall be thrown into jail.

2.  The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag       and expose the moneylender as a cheat. The result shall be the             moneylender shall look for ways to destroy them.

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

The lateral thinking found a solution: 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 dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an advantageous one.

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