Many
years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a
large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly,
fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter, so he proposed a bargain. He said he
would forgo the merchant's debt if he 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 the black
pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be
forgiven. If she picked the 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 into 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 up, 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 her pebble from the bag.
The girl put her hand into the bag and drew out a pebble.
Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the 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 pebble I picked."
Moral:
Most times in life it pays to use your head
Author: Unknown
No comments:
Post a Comment