Riddle: A man is in a financially ruining situation. Neither his nor his wife's jobs combined will earn money fast enough. He knows there is only one way out: To consult an elderly dragon living in a cave near his home.
"My good sir," the dragon says when the man asks for some of my gold, "you are welcome to my hoard whenever you please. Just leave me with enough to sleep upon, for my wings and old and weary and I cannot hunt gold as well as I could many years ago."
"Thank you kind beast," the man says, takes what he needs from the creature's hoard, and returns to his home.
The next day, the man's bills return, and he sees that what he took from the dragon's hoard was not enough to satisfy those he had to pay. He again returns to the animal's cave, who again agrees to lend him gold.
But the next day, the same happens again. And again. This continues for many years. The dragon always seems to have enough to provide the man with cash, but even so, his debts are never paid off. His debts are not limitless - he should be able to pay it all off, but he never is able to. Why is this so?
"My good sir," the dragon says when the man asks for some of my gold, "you are welcome to my hoard whenever you please. Just leave me with enough to sleep upon, for my wings and old and weary and I cannot hunt gold as well as I could many years ago."
"Thank you kind beast," the man says, takes what he needs from the creature's hoard, and returns to his home.
The next day, the man's bills return, and he sees that what he took from the dragon's hoard was not enough to satisfy those he had to pay. He again returns to the animal's cave, who again agrees to lend him gold.
But the next day, the same happens again. And again. This continues for many years. The dragon always seems to have enough to provide the man with cash, but even so, his debts are never paid off. His debts are not limitless - he should be able to pay it all off, but he never is able to. Why is this so?
Answer: Because the debts he owes are to the dragon he's taking gold from - every time he borrows gold a new debt is made, and the gold he borrows is only enough to pay off that one debt, no matter how much he takes. Thus his original debt is never paid off, since he is constantly just repaying the debt of borrowing the gold from the dragon.
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