Thinking a simple solution to a complex solution

Even the most complex situations in life may have a simple solution.......

To illustrate this, here goes a story...

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had a misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a moneylender. The moneylender who was old and ulgy, fancied the merchant’s beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant’s debt if could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.

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 up the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and her father’s  debt would be forgiven. If she picked up a 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 in the jail.

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, 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 up a pebble from the bag.

Careful analysis of the situation shows that the girl had three possibilities:

1. 1.    The girl should refuse to take a pebble
2. 2.    The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat
3. 3.    The girl should pick up a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment 

But what did the girl actually do?

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto a 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 one I picked”. Since the remaining pebble was black, it must be assumed that she picked up the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an advantageous one.

Morale of the story

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