What question would you ask?

Once upon a time there lived a boy who seemed as ordinary as other children in the village only if his journey was ordinary too.

From a very young age, he would spend most of his days working in a farm to help his mom earn a few extra cash that would feed his mom and his little brother since the father left the family when he was seven. He would earn five pennies a day, everyday and would get paid after the work was done.

On his way home he would buy bread and honey for meal and would save one penny a day which he secretly put in a jar for he had laid out an idea that one day he would buy a goat and that he would make more money by selling its milk and when he could save more, he would buy a cow then sell cow's milk. Thereafter he would buy a hen and a cock to mate them and sell their eggs and raise a couple more chicken make more money by selling more eggs from more chicken and that he could then start eating egg without buying while still maintaining his income from selling goat and cow's milk which would leave him about 5 pennies a day to save in the jar or 2 pennies a day if he buy some fruits for his mum or some sweets for his little brother.

Three years went by, the boy turned fifteen. He took the first thorough look at his saving jar and began to wonder how much he had saved. That night, without even knowing what more could he or would he do for those money, he emptied that old half full however quite heavy jar and started counting.

As he counted to 100 pennies he stopped for he didn't know what number came after, what was significance of anything beyond 100. He hadn't even gone through half of the coins and already ran out of number to carry on counting. The teenage boy came to realize he didn't have enough knowledge to count although he had always thought that he was capable of accumulating numbers having grown up with the mind of a merchant who laid out a plan to multiply money by investing and gaining profits successfully.

His wondrous mind suddenly forgot about why he started counting these money to begin with ans shifted its focus onto the question "What must I do to gain more knowledge in counting?". He kept repeating the question in his head while lying in bed. No answer came to his thoughts, he started to yawn and eventually lost consciousness into deep sleep.

The following day as he woke up, he recalled that the market where he usually went to sell milk might have some merchants who sold their goods more than 100 pennies or if not perhaps more than 100 units. Having that in mind he rushed to the market and was disappointed to learn that no goods were traded more than either 100 pennies or 100 units there. The question arose "Why must I count beyond 100 anyways since none of the thing significant to my life, as far as living in this village is concerned, has more than a hundred counts?" He had the tendency to drop his desire from being able to count more, unfortunately he could not give up on the curiosity of how much exactly he had saved. He told himself perhaps there would be an answer in another place where people need more, trade more, save more and therefore count more. If he found such a place so would he find the answer.

The journey in search for a place that would ultimately enlighten him to know how much saving money he had .... suddenly began. He told his mother and little brother that he would travel for a month and that until his return they could spend 100 pennies from the saving jar to buy meals which should last around one month since the spending were 3 pennies a day if of course no extra treats such sweets and fruits.

After a few nights of traveling strolling by foot to the east he came upon a town and went right in with crystal clear focus on finding the knowledge about how to count beyond 100. With the limit of time that he must return home in 30 days he didn't waste time on anything else so he asked only one question "How to count beyond 100?" to everyone he had encountered. One person suggested him to go asking another and after 10 people he had been asking, he was told to go to the next village where he ought to find the answer.

Three weeks had gone by he went through 3 villages still couldn't find the answer. Until one afternoon just as he left the previous village to the next, he stumped upon an old homeless man who was living isolated of the community sleeping in a small shelter made of branches and palm leaves in the mid of valleys. The teen asked question and was astonished by the old man response.

He said "Count again from one until you reach 100 and if there are still more you repeat the same again and again until either there is none left to count or you give up counting simply because you no longer recognize the value of its significance" gazing his eyes up in the sky he went on "Numbers are infinite as long as there is still the need to count, on the contrary, however counting numbers may be definite should the value we recognize needs no more number to count."

The old man turned to ask the teen "What is the highest number that you recognize its value?" The teen thought for a minute and said "I guess only 100", the old man asked "What is the value of that?" the teen replied "It's one month food supply for my family".

No sooner than he had ended his speech did he realize that his family would in fact run out of money to buy food if he did not make it back within one week. He expressed to the old man that he then came to recognize the value beyond 100 and he could anticipate how many eggs must he give up eating to let them hatch to grow more chicks and sell more eggs so that he could save money to buy another goat and another cow to sell more milk and save more money so that he could....

A) Spend more to buy his family special meal each night or..

B) Travel longer and farther to learn more counting and recognizing more value of numbers or..

C) Show his family and the people in his village value of more than 100 and teach them how to count beyond 100

The teen's heart was pumping with ambition to his seemingly new inspiration of an adventure, he asked the old man "Where must I go to learn the knowledge of counting beyond 100?"

The old man gave his last words to the teen who had been traveling far from home to find an answer of what numbers come after 100.

"Everyone in the next village knows how to count beyond 100, you might only learn one number from one person or many numbers at once, each can count up to a certain different number and they never stop counting since they live among themselves and demonstrate indefinite recognition of different values that keep on increasing. You could go to this village to learn counting or return home now and repeat counting 100 for at most another 100 times and live by the same definite value of number whichever sustain the sense of not lacking for longer."

Astonished by what he had just heard, the teen had never made such complicated decision in all his youth but now, he stayed in silence for a length of two deep breaths and turned his attention to the old man for advice, he asked.

".............................................................?" (Think of a question you would ask)

As he watched the old man disappeared he heard the voice coming from echo of the valley

"son, your heart knows the answer to its question within"