Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
In a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan shark. The loan shark was a very old, unattractive-looking man who fancied the business owner’s daughter.
He decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt. However, the catch was that he would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. This proposal was met with a look of disgust.
The loan shark said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, the debt would be wiped out, but the loan shark would marry her. If it was white, the debt would also be wiped out, but the daughter would not have to marry him.
Standing on a pebble-strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. While he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. He then asked her to reach into the bag and pick one. She drew out a pebble and, before looking at it, ‘accidentally’ dropped it among the other pebbles on the path. “Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “Never mind. If you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”
The pebble left in the bag was, of course, black. Since the loan shark did not want to be exposed, he had to play along as if the pebble she had dropped was white, and clear her father’s debt.
Why did the loan shark have to accept that the dropped pebble was white?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Admitting the truth would show that he had cheated.
The passage says, “Since the loan shark did not want to be exposed, he had to play along”.
- To be exposed means to have one’s secret wrongdoing shown to others.
- The pebble left in the bag was black. If he said the dropped pebble was also black, he would have to admit that both pebbles were black.
- Everyone would then know he had cheated. So he had to pretend that she had picked the white one.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: He believed that the daughter had been honest with him. — Incorrect. Wrong reason: The passage gives one reason only. He did not want his cheating to come out.
Option 3: He had decided that he no longer wanted to marry her. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: He cheated so that he could marry her. Nothing in the passage says he changed his mind.
Option 4: The businessman forced him to accept that he had lost. — Incorrect. Wrong cause: The businessman does nothing in this part. The loan shark was caught by his own trick.