Story No. 2: The Shadow of the Golden Elephant
The marketplace of Aurelia was buzzing with a strange kind of energy. Usually, people were arguing over the price of silk or the freshness of fish, but today, they were gathered around a massive, life-sized statue of an elephant made of solid, gleaming gold.
Standing before it were three brothers, looking miserable. Their father, a legendary traveler, had left them this one magnificent statue in his will. But there was a catch: he had commanded that the elephant be divided among them based on the “weight of its shadow” at noon.
“It’s impossible!” the eldest brother groaned. “How can you weigh a shadow? I’ve tried using a scale, but the shadow just sits on the ground. We’re going to have to melt the elephant down to divide it, and that would be a crime against art!”
Zadok and Pippin strolled over, Pippin licking a sticky piece of honeycomb. “Melting it?” Pippin asked, eyes wide. “That sounds like a lot of work for a very shiny problem.”
Zadok looked at the golden elephant, then at the sun. “You needn’t destroy the masterpiece to satisfy the law. The logic of your father wasn’t about the gold, but about the space it occupies.”
The brothers looked skeptical. “Master Zadok, even the finest scholars in Aurelia can’t weigh a shadow. What do you propose?”
Zadok pointed to a large, empty stone basin nearby, usually used for washing clothes. “Fill that basin to the very brim with water,” he instructed. The brothers hurried to obey. Once the basin was overflowing, Zadok turned to the eldest. “Now, lift the golden elephant and lower it into the water.”
As the statue sank, water splashed over the sides and onto the dry street. When the elephant was fully submerged, Zadok told them to pull it out.
“Now,” Zadok said, pointing to the empty space in the basin where the water used to be. “The water that spilled out represents the exact ‘weight’ and volume of the elephant’s form—the very thing that creates its shadow. Divide that spilled water into three equal buckets. Whatever the weight of the water in each bucket, that is the value of the gold each brother receives.”
The brothers stared in silence. It was perfectly logical. By measuring the water the elephant displaced, they had measured the “shadow” of its physical form without touching a single tool to the gold itself.
Pippin grinned at the brothers. “See? You don’t need a scale for a shadow. You just need a big enough splash!”
The brothers were so relieved they didn’t have to ruin the statue that they gifted Zadok and Pippin a small pouch of silver. As they walked away, Pippin looked at the pouch and then at the sun. “Master, do you think we should weigh the shadow of this silver before we spend it on lunch?”
Zadok laughed. “No, Pippin. I think the ‘weight’ of our hunger is logic enough for today.”
Review The Chronicles of Zadok Story 2.