Riddle Answer
by Miki SaxonLast Friday I offered you a brain-stretching riddle. Did you get the answer?
You will recall that the shifty moneylender had put two black pebbles in the bag.
The girl put her hand into the moneybag 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.’
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty out of fear, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.
I like this story because it is a simple illustration of the difficulty of so-called thinking outside the box, but why is that?
Starting as young children we are praised for coloring inside the lines and praise for coloring inside the lines continues as we grow.
The lines we stay inside my not be apparent to an onlooker, but they are obvious to our chosen world. Fashion is a great example, the Goth look that is seen as so outside-the-box by many is framed with as many rules and lines as is any mainstream look.
Fred H Schlegel had a nice suggestion, but it depended on changing the basic nature of the villain and when looking for out-of-the-box solutions we rarely can change people’s basic nature.
Becky Robinson came closest; she was honest and said that she had seen a similar problem previously. But in her synthesizing Becky allowed the crook to take the active role, assuming he would act ethically to maintain his honor, but if he had honor he wouldn’t have cheated in the first place.
Did Becky win? You decide in comments.
Creativity requires us to step away from many of our own basic assumptions as well as going outside the lines dictated by our world.
Doing this is how we enlarge our box to encompass the universe. (My apologies, I just found that this link didn’t work last week.)
It takes effort and lots of practice, but the rewards more than justify the work.
Image credit: piblet on flickr
June 20th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Enjoyed the puzzle and agree that villains seldom change their stripes. Always need a plan B. :)
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Wish I had been clever enough to figure that out – it seems so obvious now doesn’t it?
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Hi Fred, you’re right, it’s rare. And if they do it’s because they CHOSE to, not because they were coerced.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Hi Julie, I’m not sure that I agree with ‘clever’. I think what happens is that most people look closely at what is described and don’t step back and consider alternative descriptions.
In this case, we tend to focus on the emotional part instead of looking at the mechanics. I always try to consider first what is obvious, the girl’s plight, then step backward and take the situation apart sans emotion.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 am
I was going to say “smart” instead of “clever” originally but I have plenty of “book smarts”. I am definitely and unfortunately one of those people that is “stuck in their box”. Original ideas do not come easily to me. I greatly admire the people who can come up with those original ideas and better yet translate those ideas into something useful!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
Julie, Although I believe that it’s great to know yourself, I think that sometimes we tend to lock ourselves into a mindset because we stop believing that change is possible. As I said here everyone is in a box, but you can always make the box bigger. Creativity can be cultivated if you believe that. Your box may never be as big as someone else’s, but there’s nothing to stop you from enlarging it.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
Good point!