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Black And White Pebbles.
We’ve all heard the saying, “think outside of your box.” The saying has become synonymous with creative thinking and being innovative. Obviously, this quality often proves beneficial to people trying to push themselves.
This short story is one of the best examples of thinking outside of the box, which can be downright amazing.
It begins in a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago.
A small business owner found himself in a large amount of debt to a money loan-shark who was old and unattractive.
The shark-loan was interested in the business owner’s daughter.
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Of course, this meant that he offered the businessman a deal: he would eliminate the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter.
This proposal was not desirable for either the daughter nor the businessman and was met with disgust.
However, it came with a twist. The loan-shark would place two pebbles into a bag, one would be white, and one would be black.
The daughter would then be told to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble.
If the daughter picked the black pebble, the debt would be wiped, but the loan shark would marry her.
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If the daughter chose the white pebble, the debt would be also wiped, but the daughter would not have to marry the loan-shark.
The latter being the desirable outcome for both daughter and businessman.
As the loan-shark picked up the two pebbles, the daughter noticed that he had picked up two black stones, in an attempt to guarantee his plan.
The daughter then had three choices:
1) Refuse altogether to pick any pebble from the bag.
2)Expose the two black pebbles and loan-shark for cheating.
3)Pick a pebble, which would determine her horrid fate.
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The daughter, thinking outside of the box, drew out a pebble and decided to drop the stones “accidentally” on the ground into the midst of the other pebbles.
She then told the loan-shark that it didn’t matter, as they would all be able to decipher which pebble she picked, by looking at the pebbled left in the other bag.
The loan-shark did not want to be exposed and played along with the fact that the daughter had picked a white pebble.
The debt was wiped, and the daughter didn’t have to marry the loan-shark.
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