One Grain of Rice
A Mathematical Folktale
by: Demi
Appropriate for grades 3-5
Summary
Many years ago, there lived a selfish raja in India. He ruled that all the people should give him almost all of their rice for safekeeping, so that in a time of need there would be rice to eat. One year, a famine hit and no one had any rice to eat, but the raja would not give the stored rice to the people because he wanted to save it for himself. One day a clever girl named Rani created a plan to help the starving people of India. She asked the raja for one grain of rice and for each day for thirty days she asked the raja to double the amount of rice given the day before. The raja did not realize how much one grain of rice would amount to if it were doubled every day for one month. The raja learned a valuable lesson about selfishness and Rani saved the people of India from starvation through her cunningness and her understanding of math.
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