A long time ago, there
was1 a
king2 in
India3. The king's favourite game was chess.
The old man
said9, "If I win the game, I'd like one
grain10 of rice for the first square of the chessboard, two for the second, four for the third, and then
double11 the
amount12 for each of the rest of the squares."
The king and the old man played the game for a long time,
Finally17, the old man
won18, So the king
ordered19 his men to collect a bag of rice. He put one grain on the first square, two on the second, and so on. The king quickly
realized20 the problem-even with all the rice in the country, the
would13 still not have enough rice to put on all the squares!