Once there lived a merchant who had borrowed huge sum of money from a lender. He used to pay all the installments regularly. However, due to recession in market, his business slowed down and he missed paying the installments for a couple of months. The lender came to the merchant's house for collecting the installments. The merchant asked if he could be provided moratorium for some months due to recession. The lender however did not agree. On repeated requests, the lender said that he would waive off entire loan if he could marry the merchant's daughter.
The proposal was met with disgusting looks by the merchant. He could not imagine his young daughter marrying the old lender. The lender then proposed that he would give the merchant a chance of loan waiver without marrying his daughter. The merchant asked about that. The lender said, "I would put two pebbles in a bag, one black pebble and one white. Your daughter can then pick one of the pebbles from the bag. If she picks the black pebble, she would have to marry me and the loan would be waived off. However, if she is lucky and picks the white pebble, the loan would be waived off without marriage."
The merchant agreed and an event was organized in the central ground of the village. The merchant came with his daughter. The lender took a bag and went to pick the pebbles. While he was picking the pebbles, the merchant's daughter noticed that he cleverly picked two black pebbles and placed them inside the bag. The lender then asked her to come and pick a pebble from the bag.
The daughter now had three options in front of her. First, she could refuse to participate and let her father pay the loan somehow. Second, she could take out both the pebbles and expose the lender for cheating. In such a case, the chances of loan waiver would be completely shut off and the lender may even harass her father. Third, to pick a black pebble fully knowing that she could only pick a black pebble and sacrifice her life for her father's freedom.
The daughter kept her calm and thought of solving the problem. She went ahead and picked a pebble from the bag. However, before looking at it, she pretended to lose her balance and fell on the ground. While falling, she also dropped the pebble in midst of other pebbles on ground. She then stood up and said, "How bad of me, I could not keep my balance. Never mind, can I pick the remaining pebble and see which pebble I picked and decide my and my father's future."
The lender had to play along to save himself from getting exposed. The daughter picked the second pebble, which was obviously black. The lender and everyone had to agree that she picked the white pebble in her previous attempt. She saved herself and her father from the problem with her calm mind and thinking out of the box.
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