A blind spot

Post 28 Counting the number of buffaloes while riding on one

When I was in the primary school in the 1950s, there was one lesson which was unforgettable. It had to do with the counting of buffaloes. A buffalo is a large Asian and African animal of the cattle family, with long flattish curved horns.

There was this boy who herded ten buffaloes for the first time. After some time out in the field, he was counting the number of buffaloes while riding on one. The boy counted that there were only nine in the field and thought that there was one missing. He panicked and alighted from the buffalo he was riding and counted again. Much to his relief, there were exactly ten buffaloes.

Just before the boy left for home, he counted the number of buffaloes again. However, he was puzzled that there were again only nine left in the field. He then quickly alighted from his buffalo to count again. This time the number of buffaloes became ten instead of nine. He scratched his head and said, “Why were there only nine buffaloes in the field when I counted them while riding on a buffalo? And when I alighted and counted, there were ten.” The boy had the lack of understanding on how to count correctly. He had a blind spot about Arithmetic.

Widen your horizon in life and more blind spots will depart from you.

12 January 2010