Six weeks had passed since the late king was buried . The elders gathered at the palace to decide who would become the next king . The Onowu stood up and started talking, "The King is dead and we are expected to crown the next king. The king's two wives gave birth to male children simultaneously, so that rules out age as a criterion. I was with the King in the last moments of his life and he told me to use a certain test as a yardstick for deciding who the next king will be . I will now tell you all the test ". "Onowu, sorry to interrupt but I think it will be best if both Prince Ebube and Prince Ebuka are summoned, so that they will be able to hear the test." Ichie Nduka suggested. The other chiefs agreed to his suggestion and both princes were summoned.
When the two princes arrived, the Onowu continued, " According to the king, there are 3 princesses in Isiagwu village all of different ages. One of the princesses always tells the truth, one never tells the truth and one sometimes tells the truth and sometimes not.
To pass the test, you must choose a princess you can always trust. Therefore it must be the princess that always tells the truth or the princess that never tells the truth (you can just negate her answers for the rest of their marriage). Before you choose the princess you wish to marry, you can ask one and only one princess a single question. She must only answer the question by saying either yes or no. The king also said that neither of you could ask the question 'who is more truthful'. The first one to complete the task wins. Each of you has only one try, meaning if one of you tries first and fails, the other person automatically becomes king. He instructed me to be acting king till one of you wins."
Ebuka went to meet his friends for advice and they told him that the riddle was impossible to answer. They advised him to wait for Ebube to try and fail. Ebube on the other hand decided to visit a wise man that lived in a dangerous forest . Ebube went to the forest where he met the man. The man was pleased at his display of courage and told him how to solve the riddle. "It is quite easy to answer", he said. "Ask the middle one if the youngest is more truthful than the eldest. If the answer is "no" then marry the youngest, otherwise marry the eldest. That way, if the middle one is the liar, you are guaranteed to marry the most truthful of the remaining two. If the middle one is the truthful one, then you are guaranteed to marry the least truthful of the remaining two. If the middle one sometimes tells the truth and sometimes lies then it doesn't matter which of the other two you marry".
Anene Ebubechukwu Anthony
#ANSAChildrenLiteratureOfTheWeek
Story story o
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