Once upon a time, there was a merchant named Sam who owed a lot of money to a money lender named Tom.

Sam was given a last chance to repay the money, but he couldn’t.

Now, Tom, who wasn’t a good-looking or kind person, had a strange idea.

He told Sam that if he couldn’t repay the money, he would marry Sam’s beautiful daughter.

Tom proposed a new condition.

On the ground, there were black and white pebbles mixed together.

Tom would pick two pebbles, one black and one white, and Sam’s daughter had to choose the white one.

If she did, Tom would forgive the debt and forget about marrying her.

But if she chose the black one, he would still forgive the debt but marry her.

When Tom reached down to pick the pebbles, the clever daughter noticed he took two black ones.

Now, she faced a tough choice.

She could tell her father, risking Tom’s anger, take the black pebble and sacrifice herself, or refuse to take a pebble and put her father in trouble.

But what she did surprised everyone.

She took a pebble from Tom’s hand and ‘accidentally’ dropped it.

Then, she asked him to see which color pebble was left in his hand.

Tom had no choice but to reveal the black pebble, and in the end, both the merchant and his daughter were set free.

Moral of the story

Sometimes in life, you face situations that need not only hard work and determination but also some clever thinking to fix things.