A Story of how kings, hermits and numbers behave...
A king became lost in a forest. He was found by a hermit who fed him and taught him the game of chess. "How can I ever repay you?" asked the king. "Well," suggested the hermit, "just pay me one grain of rice on the first square of the chess board, and then two on the second, 4 on the third and so on." The king thought this was too small a reward, but agreed...
1/2 a teaspoon of rice at the end of the first row... 4 cups of rice at the end of the second row... 256 pounds of rice by the end of the third row... before the board was halfway filled the kings entire granary would have been emptied...
The king returned to the hermit, "I see I will need to be more careful in making deals with hermits... would you like me to cut off your head or make you immortal as the inventor of the most beautiful game?"
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