In a small village in India an unlucky farmer had to pay a large amount of money to a village money-lender. The old and ugly money-lender liked the beautiful daughter of the farmer. So he suggested a bargain. He told the farmer that he would write off the loan if he could marry the farmer's daughter. The farmer and his daughter were shocked by the proposal. So the clever money-lender suggested that luck should decide the matter. He told the father and the daughter that he would put a black and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be written off. If she picked the white pebble, she need not marry him and the father's debt would be written off. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail. They were standing on a pebble-covered path in the farmer's field. As they were talking, the money-lender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked the pebbles, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. Now imagine that you were standing in the field, what would you have done if you had been the girl? If you had to advise the girl, what would you have told her?
There could be three possibilities:
(a) The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
(b) The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
(c) The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from debt and imprisonment. The girl put her hand into the bag and drew out a pebble. She did not look at the pebble. She let the pebble fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. The girl admitted that she had done a wrong thing. But she said that if they looked into the bag, for the one that is left, they would be able to tell which pebble she had picked. Since the remaining pebble is black, it should be assumed that she picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl may change an impossible situation into an advantageous one. This story teaches us a lesson. The lesson is that the most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we do not attempt to think in that direction. It teaches us to think out of the box or think laterally. Lateral thinking is creative or non-linear thinking. It is thinking differently. It is doing something that might be novel and unconventional in nature. There is another story that illustrates the use of lateral thinking. A millionaire named Thomas walked into a popular bank in the middle of New York City. He requested a loan officer for a small sum of money .......... dollars 5000. The bank officer asked for security. He offered his brand new Ferrari car as security. Thomas left the bank with dollars 5000 and the bank employee took Thomas' keys and drove the brand new Ferrari down into the bank's underground garage. He assured Thomas that it would be perfectly safe there. After two weeks, Thomas returned to New York and returned the borrowed 5000 dollars plus the interest. They had found out that he was one of the wealthiest men in America. The bank wanted to know why he had the need to borrow 5000 dollars. Thomas smiled, picked up the keys from the counter and said if they could tell him another way he could have parked his new Ferrari in the middle of New York for two weeks for just 15 dollars and still get it back in top condition. After saying this, Thomas walked out of the door and the loan officer smiled a bigger smile. De Bono explains that lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. It is concerned with the perception part of thinking.
 Chapter no - 3 THINKING OUT OF THE BOX: LETERAL THINKING ){kind=link}
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