There was a father who left 17 camels as an asset for his three sons. When the father passed away, his sons opened the Will, which stated that the eldest son should get half of 17 camels while the second son should be given 1/3rd (one-third). The youngest son should be given 1/9th (one-ninth) of the 17 camels. As it is not possible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9, the three sons started to fight. Then they decided to go to a wise man. The wise man listened patiently about the Will, and after giving this some thought, brought one camel of his own and added the same to 17. That increased the total to 18 camels. Now, he started reading the Will. Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 camels. 1/3rd of 18 = 6. So he gave the second son 6 camels. 1/9th of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 camels. Now add this up: 9 plus 6 plus 2 is 17 and this leaves one camel, which the wise man took away. Moral: The attitude to adopt, for any negotiation and problem solving is to find the 18th camel, i.e. some common ground. Once a person is able to find the 18th camel, the issue is resolved. It is difficult at times. However, to reach a solution, the first step is to believe that there is a solution. If we think that there is no solution, we won’t be able to reach any!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 10:04:48 +0000
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