THINK LITERALLY TO FIND WAY OUT

I have also shared with my colleagues and friends the story of a moneylender and a young girl. It’s about the girl’s father, a poor farmer, who could not pay back the money he borrowed from the moneylender and could be thrown into jail. The moneylender proposed a deal to the young girl. He would forgo her father’s debt if she would accept the deal. However, if there was no deal, then her father would be sent to jail for not able to pay back the money.

The girl accepted the deal to save her father but she was asked to pick a river pebble from a moneybag. If she picked a black pebble, she would become the young wife of the moneylender but her father’s debt would be forgiven. If the pebble she picked was a white one, she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.

The moneylender was cunning as the girl saw him putting 2 black river pebbles into the moneybag. She could not expose the moneylender as a cheat for the deal would be called off. She knew that whichever pebble she picked, it would be a black one anyway and she had to marry to the old man. The picking would be witnessed in front of other farmers and village elders.

It seemed to be a very fair deal to the young girl but in actual fact it was not. She would be the end looser the moment she accepted the deal as the end result had already been fixed by the moneylender. Nevertheless, she would have no choice as she wanted to save her father from going to jail.

Now how will you suggest a way to help the girl to jump out from the moneylender’s trap and free herself from becoming the young wife of the moneylender and save her father from his debt and imprisonment?

Someone suggested that the girl took a white pebble hidden in her hand and then putting her hand into the bag and pulling it out quickly, thus showing the white pebble in her hand. But the cunning moneylender would have checked the girl’s hand before allowing her putting it into the bag to pick a pebble.

Do you think there was no choice for the girl but she had to pick one of the black pebbles to save her father and married to the old ugly moneylender?

There were other suggestions from my colleagues and friends as well but the correct one was a little trick played by the smart young girl. She had to show her hand before she put it into the bag to pick the pebble. The moment she pulled her hand out from it, she deliberately fell down and dropped the pebble on the ground full of other river pebbles.

What if she chose to throw away the pebble?

Surely someone in the crowd could have possibly seen the black color of the river pebble, right?

Well, she apologized for her clumsiness and asked the village head to examine the color of the remaining pebble in the bag. Since it was a black pebble, then the pebble she picked and dropped on the ground must be a white one. The moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty and the girl changed what seemed to be an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

I shared this story with the purpose to motivate my colleagues and friends and put confidence in them. First of all, we must be bold enough to accept all challenges even though the circumstances may not be in favor of us. In this story, if the young girl chose to disclose the cheating of the moneylender, the deal will be called off and her poor father will be sent into the jail.

For every problem, there is a solution. However, if we choose to focus on the problem, in this story both pebbles were black, and then we may not able to find the answer. We know that whichever pebble she picked would be a black one.

However, when we keep focusing on finding the way out and think literally, we can rule out all wrong possibilities and find the right one. The young girl put on her thinking cap not to expose the moneylender as a cheat by putting 2 black river pebbles into the moneybag, but by just playing a small trick, she got what she wanted for not becoming the young wife of the moneylender and her father was pardoned of his debt and need not go to jail.

In other words, when we are given a mission we must strike for a DEAL. With that in mind, then we can all put in our best efforts to get the DEAL without making any silly move that may jeopardize it. Once the DEAL is on, only then we'll focus on our vision. That is to see that the DEAL gets through. Eventually, we can achieve what we aim for.