LATERAL THINKING - THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
The classical story that Edward de Bono, the Guru MahaRaj of Lateral Thinking tells, is oft quoted.
There are several varients of the same story.
Its about a Beauty.
Her father had borrowed heavily from an old Jewish money-lender. He could not repay the loan.
The Old Jew took him to debtors court.
In those days, they had debtors courts. In these courts only debt cases were heard. If the debtor could not repay, he was jailed for a certain period. Confiscation, etc., usually went with the jail term.
In the court, the old Jew made a term. In lieu of the loan, he asked the debtor for his beautiful daughter.
The daughter cried and begged and pleaded.
At long last, the court came up with some terms.
It was decided to draw lots.
If the lots said 'Yes', she was to marry the Jew. If 'No', she was exempted from the marriage and the loan was also abbrogated.
Accordingly, they asked the town clerk to make arrangements for the lots.
But the town clerk was bribed secretly by the Jew and he wrote out the words 'Yes' in both the slips of paper for drawing lots.
The Beauty guessed as much.
When both the slips of paper were cast, she took one and said, "I am taking this. I will do according to what it says."
And then she swallowed it.
A rukus ensued.
But the Beauty said very coolly, "Look inside the other slip of paper. What I swallowed must contain a word which is contradictory to what had been written on the slip that I swallowed".
They opned the other paper and read, "Yes".
"Which means 'No' for me", the Beauty said blithefully.
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