Som Bathla - Think Out of the Box

THINK OUT OF THE BOX

Generate Ideas on Demand, Improve Problem Solving, Make Better Decisions, and Start Thinking Your Way to the Top

Som Bathla

www.sombathla.com

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Chapter 1: Introduction

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Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box.

Deepak Chopra

An Out of the Box Story

O nce, there was a poor farmer who lived with his daughter in a village. He owed a huge debt to the village head. He was working hard to earn and repay his debt by way of smaller installments every month. But despite that, the debt amount was getting bigger and bigger instead of being reduced, as the rate of interest charged by the village head was exorbitantly high.

This village head was not only greedy, but he had evil intentions. He wanted to marry the farmers beautiful daughter, who was less than half of his age. He also knew that the burgeoning amount of loan had already put the farmer in a state of anxiety and depression, as the farmer was not only worried about putting food on the table daily, his topmost concern was his daughters marriage and to provide for her better future.

Knowing all that, the village head thought of exploiting the farmers unfortunate situation and proposed him with an offer that could alleviate all the problems of the farmer once and for all. He offered to forego the farmers entire debt and interest, if his daughter would agree to play one game. In the game, there was a non-transparent steel jar that would contain two pebbles in it one black and the other white. The farmers daughter just needed to put her hand in the jar with closed eyes and pick out one of the pebbles from a jar without looking inside.

Here were the conditions of the game:

1. If she picked a black pebble, the debt would be forgiven.
2. However, if she picks a white pebble, the debt would still be forgiven but she had to marry that village head.

The farmer was hesitant and skeptical of the intentions of the village head, as he didnt want to put her daughters life in jeopardy by letting her marry the wicked village head. But his daughter somehow convinced him to play the game, as she wanted to sincerely help her father get rid of all his financial woes. Moreover, there was still a 50% chance for her to win, i.e. waiver of the loan without marrying the village head.

Next day, the farmer, his daughter, the village head, and some other villagers went to gravel (a piece of land covered with pebbles). A random villager was asked to quickly pick two pebbles (one black, one white) and put them in the jar.

But as you might have guessed, how could the village head, being so greedy and wicked, have such a big offer to waive the loan solely on 50% probability and lose his money without getting married to the farmers daughter. In fact, the evil village head had already bribed that stranger to somehow secretly ensure that he put both white pebbles in the jar. However, since her entire life was on stake, while nobody else could notice, the farmers daughter observed this mischief.

Now for a moment, assume you are there in her situation. What will you do?

There seem to be only two options:

Alternative 1: Dont say anything, pick up one of the white pebbles, lose the game, and marry the evil guy.

Alternative 2 : Publicly reveal that the jar has two white pebbles.

She obviously didnt want to marry him, so option 1 was not the preferred choice. But she wanted to definitely help her father by getting his loan forgiven so that both she and her father could lead a better life. But she also knew that if she opted for option 2, then the village head would get annoyed and make their life more miserable.

She was in a fix, but then she thought for a moment and went ahead.

Following the rules of the game, she picked up one pebble from the jar. But before showing it to anyone she dropped it in the gravel in a way that it seemed like a mistake. Fortunately, since the gravel was all covered with mixed white and black pebbles, no one could tell which one she picked.

She apologized for her mistake, but smartly suggested that if some villagers could check the other pebble remaining in the jar, it could then be determined easily which pebble she had picked. There was no reason to disagree with the daughters suggestion, so the village head had to agree.

It seemed so natural to everyone when the villager picked out a white pebble from the jar. Therefore it meant that the girl had picked the black pebble.

Therefore, following the rules of the game, picking up black pebble entitled the girl to get the loan of her father waived without getting married to the village head. The village head guy was bewildered and got frustrated but couldnt say anything because she won fair and square, as it appeared on the face of it.

Here the girl played the smart game secretly out-of-the-jar by following the out-of the-box thinking approach.

You see how the girl created a third option, while there were seemingly only two options.

For a moment, assume even if she had called out that the game was unfair, the stranger could have said he did it by mistake, and he would pick two pebbles again and put them in the jar. But even in that option she would still run a 50% chance of losing. The option she took was not obvious to anyone but it guaranteed her win by taking advantage of the rigged game. By out of the box thinking, she created 100% secure option that made her help her father as well as safeguard herself from getting into the trap of the evil village head.