"Thinking Out of the Box"
Post on: February 19, 2020
In a village, there lived a wealthy businessman, Roy who was altruistic and loved by the villagers. Lately, Roy made some bad deals at the advice of his friends compounded by the unfavourable economic conditions. This resulted in much loss and in order to stay afloat, he had to borrow money from the village moneylender. The moneylender, Bobby was unscrupulous and had an eye for Roy’s beautiful daughter.
Bobby was known for his shady deals and everybody hated him for his high-handed tactics as he went about negotiating his business transactions in favour of him. The borrowers had no choice but to relent to his unfair advantage. Being a shrewd guy, he waited for the opportune moment to corner Roy.
One day he paid Roy a visit and pontificated, “It’s been a year since you borrowed the money and its due already.”
Roy replied, “Sir, can you please extend for another six months? I will definitely pay you with the interest.”
“Six months?” cried Bobby, “Am I running a charity? It’s now or never! However, we can compromise with a generous deal I am about to propose.”
“What would it be, Sir?” Roy enquired.
“I will pick a white and black pebble into my hands. If your daughter chooses the white pebble, all the debts would be written off and you can go scot-free,” he explained, “However, if she chooses the black pebble, I will write off the debts but she as to marry me.”
The moneylender was as old as Roy and evil looking. However, Roy was in a quandary as he did not have the money to pay off his debts. He stood forlorn.
Immediately Bobby bent down to pick two pebbles from the sandy area which was filled with black and white pebbles. He did it while distracting Roy who was crestfallen.
Roy’s daughter noticed Bobby stealthily picking two black pebbles. She felt indignant and wanted to inform her dad. Suddenly she hit upon a brainwave. She wanted to teach the unscrupulous moneylender a lesson he would never forget!
Without hesitation, she picked a pebble (obviously black) from Bobby’s right hand. He was beaming at his initiative and could not wait for the good news. But before she opened her hands to show the colour, she “accidentally” dropped it on the floor which was littered with many pebbles of white, black and assorted colours.
“What have I done?” she cried, “It’s Ok – Sir, if you open your hand and see the colour of your pebble, then we can determine the colour of the pebble which I dropped.”
Bobby was astounded by the ingenuity of the girl. He had no choice but to show the pebble in his hand as the villagers had come to know of it and had gathered around. Hesitantly, he opened his hand and everyone was relieved to notice it was a black pebble.
“Thank goodness, I picked the white pebble,” exulted the jubilant girl.
So, Roy and his daughter were released from the bondage of deception from the evil moneylender.
Sometimes, life presents us with a situation where we are cornered unfairly like in the story. Instead of being the sacrificial lamb, think out of the box! A tit-for-a-tat — weasel your way out of such unjust circumstances. As illustrated in the story, some creative thinking saves the day.
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