The King & The Peasant
Long, long ago,
there lived a mighty king. He conquered every known land and became ruler of the world itself. Yet once all his battles had been won,
once there was nothing left to conquer,
a deep sorrow fell upon him. For despite all his power and wealth,
the king had lost all joy. He sat alone upon his golden throne,
burdened by a terrible boredom
that no treasure in the world could cure.
So the King
commanded his servants
to search the vast kingdom for entertainment worthy of a ruler of the world. They returned with fire breathers
and mighty lion tamers. With dancers and performers
who could bend and twist their bodies
in the most astonishing ways. Yet none of it changed anything. The king remained upon his throne,
yawning in endless boredom,
unable to find even the slightest joy.
Until one day,
an old rice farmer arrived at the royal court. The farmer revealed a chessboard
and presented the pieces to the king. He explained the rules to the mighty ruler,
and together they began to play a few games. Before the king even realized it,
darkness had fallen outside. He had completely lost his sense of time. At last, the king had found
a new favorite pastime.
Joyfully,
the King thanked the old rice farmer and wished to repay him:
“Good farmer, you have defeated my boredom. As a token of my gratitude, I shall grant you one wish. You may ask for anything your heart desires. Would you like gold? Would you like servants? Would you prefer land…
or perhaps an army?”
But the old farmer,
with a humble smile upon his face,
asked the King for something entirely different — something most unexpected:
“For the first square of the chessboard, I ask for a single grain of rice.
For the second square,
twice that amount. And so on, square after square, until the sixty-fourth and final field.”
The king could hardly believe
the farmer’s modest request.
After all, he was the most powerful
man in the world. Surely, he thought,
he could gather more rice
than the old farmer could ever
dream of possessing. And so, the King summoned
his greatest mathematicians
and scholars, commanding them
to calculate how many grains of rice
the farmer would receive.
After two long weeks,
the King had still received no answer.
Until at last the King's finest Mathematician approached him:
"Your Majesty…”
said the exhausted and desperate servant.
“The farmer’s wish cannot be fulfilled. The number of grains of rice would exceed the total amount of rice within all the kingdoms of the world combined.”
The King - shocked, could not fulfill the peasant's wish.
The Mission
