Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Mathematics as a way of life

Long long time ago, there was a clever man somewhere living in a far far village. He had a donkey for his business which was very helpful. Now, as with anything else, this donkey was getting old and becoming more and more of a burden. Since it was not possible to get good money for an old donkey in the open market, this clever man thought about a plan.

He announced a lottery, everyone who was interested in getting the donkey will have to give 1 rupee each, and he will put all the names in a pot and pick one randomly. Whoever wins will get the donkey as prize. Many people thought it as a good investment and gave one rupee to the man.

On a set day, he put all the names who have given money to him in a pot and picked a name and gave the donkey to the winner. He had collected good enough money in this method and was very happy.

After a while, the donkey died, and the owner came to complain to the man. So what do you think this clever man did? Of course, he was an honest man, so he returned one rupee back to the owner.

I remembered this old story which I read many many years ago while reading an excellent post by Tanya Khovanova on her math blog. Check her out. She is very interesting to read.

1 comment:

smiles for you said...

Interesting story..:) I enjoy reading your posts. Keep it up.

Cheers.