The story of Rice and Chessboard

Knowledge and experience are the most significant dividends in life. Without one, the other will always yield fewer results. Take the classic story of rice and chessboard, for instance. 
There’s a famous legend about the origin of chess that goes like this. When the inventor of the game showed it to the emperor of India, the emperor was so impressed by the new game, that he said to the man

“Name your reward!”

The man responded,

“Oh emperor, my wishes are simple. I only wish for this. Give me one grain of rice for the first square of the chessboard, two grains for the next square, four for the next, eight for the next and so on for all 64 squares, with each square having double the number of grains as the square before.”

The emperor agreed, amazed that the man had asked for such a small reward — or so he thought. After a week, the king realized that he was unable to fulfil his promise because The total number of rice grains needed to fill the chessboard would be 18,446,744,073,709,551,615. That is more than 18 quintillion rice grains with an approximate weight of 210 billion tonnes.

India currently produces an approximate 100 million tonnes of rice each year. At this rate of production, it will take the country more than 2,000 years to grow enough rice to pay the sage entirely.

Crux of the story?

“Doesn’t matter where you start, it’s how far you go and whether you withdraw anything along the way.”.