Did your math teacher ever resort to telling you stories?
Mine did! And I never thought of it as a story about mathematics. For me it was just another story about a brave little girl, and I forgot all about it until  recently when I read how Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world was inspired by this very same humble Indian folktale and went on to create his astounding wealth on the simple principle of compounding in mathematics.

Long ago a King lived in the western region of India. He thought of himself as a wise King, and most of his subjects were poor farmers who cultivated rice as their main crop. One day the King thought “ These farmers grow so much rice. Where do they store their extra produce? Let me keep the extra rice in my granary for the safekeeping and if there is a famine, everyone shall have enough rice to eat, and no one will go hungry.”

So he sent out an diktat to his subjects stating that from now on all farmers will have to deposit their extra produce of rice in his granary, which would be given to them in times of a famine or any other calamity. Poor farmers trusted the King and deposited the extra grain in his granary. For a number of years, the monsoon was good and all the farmers had bumper crops. King’s granaries were soon filled to the brim with surplus grain.

But then came the year when it hardly rained, the paddy fields dried up and rice crop failed across the land. Farmers came to the court and requested the king to release the rice they had deposited in his granaries. The chief minister also implored “ Your highness! There is a famine in the country and people are going hungry and you had promised to release the rice grains during the famine. Now is the time to give back their rightful share of rice.” The King got angry and shouted back to the minister “ You Idiot! How can I release the grain to people when there is a famine? How can a King go hungry? Promise or no promise no grain can be be given to these farmers as I need it for myself”