Weighing the Elephant

Illustrated By: Stella Wei

THESE DAYS IF YOU WANT TO SEE A RARE, exotic animal from a faraway land, all you need to do is to go to a zoo, check out a book from the library, or surf the Internet or YouTube videos.  But long ago, people did not usually have a chance to see animals from faraway lands.  If a beast appeared that had never been seen before, it was a sensation.  This is what happened many years ago in China, when a mighty Emperor received a stunning gift from a royal visitor - a real, live elephant!

All the court was abuzz with excitement - no one had seen anything like it!  As soon as the royal guest left, it was all anyone could talk about.  Word quickly spread throughout the land about the enormous creature.

At court, the mandarins marveled at its size. “The elephant is bigger than a water buffalo!” said one mandarin.

“Are you kidding?” said a second.  “It’s bigger than two water buffalos!”

“You must be joking,” said a third. “The elephant is bigger than a rhino - no, I mean one rhino on top of another!”

The Emperor said to his mandarins, “I will settle this matter once and for all. Who can tell me how to weigh this elephant?”

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The Emperor said to his mandarins, "I will settle this matter once and for all."

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“I can tell you!” said the first mandarin, who used to be a merchant.  “We will put it on a scale.”

“Good luck with that,” said the Emperor.  “No scale will hold the weight of an elephant without breaking.”

“I can tell you!” said the second mandarin, who used to be a tailor.  “We will measure the elephant.”

“No,” said the Emperor with a sigh.  “Even if you measured all the different parts of an elephant, you will still not know how much it weighs.”

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"Even if you measured all the different parts of an elephant, you will still not know how much it weighs."

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“I can tell you!” said the third mandarin, who used to be a baker.  “We will cut up the elephant and cook it.  Then we will know.”

“We will surely not do that!” roared the Emperor. “Is there no one who can tell me how to weigh the elephant?”

Then a young voice said, “I know how.”  All eyes turned to the voice - it was the Emperor's son, twelve years old.

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Then a young voice said, "I know how."

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“Son!” said the Emperor. “Isn't it past your bedtime?”

“I'm not a child," said the young Prince.  "And I know how to weigh the elephant. And you won’t need to cook it first.”

“Very well,” said the Emperor, humoring his son.  “Tell us all how to weigh the elephant.”

The young Prince described what to do and this is what he said: “You put the elephant in a big boat and take the boat out on the water."

"Why would we do such a thing?" said the father, skeptically.  "It will float away and then we'll never weigh it."

"Wait, Father," said the prince.  "Our attendants draw a line on the side of the boat where it meets the water, at the watermark.  Then you bring the boat back to shore and take the elephant off the boat. Put rocks on the boat, one by one. When the boat sinks to the same watermark line it had when the elephant was in it, bring the boat to shore again. Take out the rocks and weigh them one by one. Add up the weight of all the rocks - that's how you can tell how much the elephant weighs."

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" shouted everyone.

“It will work!” called out the first mandarin.  

“What a clever plan!” said the second.  

“Who knew a child could figure this out?” said the third.

And the fame of Emperor's son traveled far and wide.