Click the banner to the left to go to his blog site and on the image after the jump for the post in which Robert Krulwich wonders about the “Old Rice-Grains-On-The-Chessboard Con, With a New Twist”:
Once upon a time, says the science writer David Blatner, there was this con man who made chessboards for high-end clients — in this case, a king.
The craftsman was good; his chessboards were better than beautiful. The king, he knew, loved chess. So he hatched a plan to trick the king into handing over an enormous fortune. His plan? He figured, “This king is not too good at math.”
So when the craftsman presented his chessboard at court, he told the king,
“Your Highness, I don’t want money for this. Or jewels. All I want is a little rice.”
“Hmm,” thought the king, who was a con man himself. “I’ve got rice. How much rice?”
“All I want,” said the craftsman, “is for you to put a single grain of rice on the first square, two grains on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on and so on and so on, for the full 64 squares.”
Click the image to the left to go to the post and read the remainder of the story.
Organikos 