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.
Which of the following choices did the daughter have before she drew a pebble?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → All of the above
Before she drew a pebble, the daughter had already seen the trick. So all three choices were open to her. Each one had a cost.
- She could refuse to pick a pebble. Then her father would still owe the large sum of money (Option 1).
- She could expose the loan shark, as she “noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles”. But then the deal would end, and the debt would stay (Option 2).
- She could pick a pebble, knowing it was black. Then “the debt would be wiped out”, but she would have to marry the loan shark. To give herself up means to give away her own happiness for someone else (Option 3).