|| Faraway Originals Ages 3+ ||
In the small town of Chitrapur, there lived an old man called Somu. Somu was an honest shopkeeper who owned a kirana store.
Somu lived alone as his wife passed away many years ago. Somu’s only son lived away in the city and came to visit him once a year during the festival. His store was on the street by the road near to the government school.
Somu really liked spending time with the school kids who stopped by at his shop to buy sweets and toffees. Sometimes he would tell them stories or ask them puzzles and riddles and give toffees to them if they answered it correctly.
Chintu, Bunty and Pinky studied in the Chitrapuri primary school. They loved Somu kaka and his stories. Somu kaka makes them laugh a lot. When the school gets over at 3:00pm, the trio play in the school ground for some time and then stop at Somu kaka’s for chitchat.
Today also, as usual, they stopped at Somu kaka’s shop. Somu kaka was reading the newspaper. When they came, he smiled at them and put the paper down.
“Who’s ready for a brand new riddle today? Today’s one is tough, so if you crack it, you get two toffees instead of one!”
“I will get those for sure”, said Bunty.
“Stop bragging, you never get them”, responded Chintu.
“Shh! Kaka, you tell the riddle”, said Pinky.
So Somu kaka started, “ A prisoner was once on a death row. The guards told him, “ You have one option. You tell us one sentence. If you tell a lie, we will hang you. If you tell a truth, we will shoot you”.
The prisoner thought for a while and said something. He survived. So, you three tell me, what did he say?”
The three screwed their faces up in concentration. What could he have said? It seemed impossible. After few minutes, Bunty spoke up, “Did he say you will let me survive?”
Somu kaka said, “No, then that would be a lie. Then prisoner would be hanged”.
“Oh! I got it!”, Pinky spoke up with a glint in her eye, “ Did he say something like: the number of crows in this town are ten thousand forty three?”
Somu kaka said, “Why would he say that?”
Pinky proudly said, “Because the guards won’t be able to count them. I heard this in a Akbar Birbal story once. Akbar had asked Birbal to count the crows. Birbal gave some number. Akbar asked what if the number was different. Then Birbal had said if the number was lower, then some crows have left town and if it was higher, then some some crows are here visiting”
Somu kaka laughed heartily and said, “ You are a clever little girl, aren’t you! You make a good point but in this case, the prisoner’s life depends on the answer. With Birbal, it was just funny banter. If he had said a number, the guards could say it was either a truth or a lie, so he could either be shot or hanged as easily“. “ But that was one clever guess”, added Somu kaka seeing Pinky’s face fall.
The kids got to thinking more. Chintu said finally, “ I think he may have said you will hang me ” Somu kaka smiled at him and said, “Why so?”
Chintu said, “If the prisoner said you will hang me. If it was the truth, he should be shot, not hanged. But if they call it a lie, then they should not hang him, that means it is a lie and they should actually hang him. I am getting confused just trying to explain it”
Bunty and Pinky seem to be understanding it slowly. Bunty said, “Oh! It is like, you said you would do something, but doing it will change the truth to a lie. Nice!” and gave a high five to Chintu.
Chintu said, “ I think I read it somewhere too. It’s called something..err..what’s the word.. something like a parachute?”.
“Paradox”, giggled Pinky.
Kaka gave a big smile and said, “Well done Chintu! You got the answer! Now here is some coconut candy for all of you. You all gave good answers, so it’s for everyone!”
Like (0)