Question Paper from: RBI Assistant Prelims 2016

Once upon a time, there were three brothers. They were very clever and one day decided to make a fortune by using their powers of reasoning and logic. As they walked to the nearest city to look for work, they saw some footprints on the mud road. As they stood looking at the marks, a merchant came rushing towards them. ‘Did you see anyone go by this road '?' he asked in a panic. The first brother looked closely at the prints and said, 'Yes, a large camel'. The second said, 'The camel could see with only one eye'. The third, who had been looking further down the road, said, 'The camel was carrying a woman and a child on its back'. Now the merchant was furious and shouted, 'You have kidnapped my wife and child. Come with me to the king.' The brothers could not get him to reason out and the four men ended up In the king's court. 'Hmm,' the king said after he had heard the entire story. ‘If you three claim to be so clever, let me seta task for you. I will place before you a wooden box which will be locked. You will have to tell me what it contains without looking inside.' The three brothers agreed, and soon the king's men placed before them a stout wooden box, firmly shut. The first brother said immediately, ‘It has something round inside.' The second said, ‘It is a pomegranate.' An unripe pomegranate' added the third. The box was opened and indeed, inside there was an unripe pomegranate. The king now asked them for an explanation. The first man said, ‘When your servant was bringing the box, I heard something rolling inside. That meant there was a round object in it. The second man said, ‘I saw your servant coming from the pomegranate orchard, so I knew he had placed a pomegranate in the box.' And this is not the season for pomegranates, so it had to be an unripe one, commented the last brother. The king had now witnessed the brother's powers of observation and was curious to know how they had discovered about the merchant's wife and child being on the camel's back. ‘The footprints we saw were large ones, so I deduced it was a big camel that had passed that way,' said the first brother.' The camel had grazed on only one side of the road,’, said the second, so I knew it was one-eyed.' 'And I saw the footprints of a woman and a child where the camel had sat down to rest,' said the third, 'which meant they were on the camel's back.' The king, now convinced of their cleverness, appointed the three brothers as ministers in his court.

Why did the merchant take the three brothers to the king's court?