Tenali Raman lived in a house at the edge of the town with his wife and a modest amount of savings.
One evening a neighbour came running to warn him. A gang of thieves had been moving through the area, emptying houses in the night. They would reach his street by morning.
Tenali Raman thanked the neighbour and went inside.
His wife was worried. "We should hide the money somewhere they won't find it."
"Yes," said Tenali Raman. He picked up their small chest of savings, carried it outside, and dropped it into the well in their courtyard. It hit the water with a loud splash.
His wife stared at him. "You threw our savings into the well."
"I did," he said, and went to bed.
That night the thieves came.
They searched the house thoroughly - every corner, every shelf, under every mat. They found nothing of value. Frustrated, they noticed the well. Tenali Raman must have hidden something there. They spent the rest of the night pulling water out of the well bucket by bucket, piling it in the courtyard, convinced the chest would appear.
By dawn the well was nearly empty. The chest sat at the bottom in plain sight. The thieves had run out of time - the sky was getting light and people would be waking soon. They left empty handed.
When Tenali Raman woke up, he found his courtyard flooded and his well emptied. He lowered a rope, pulled up the chest, and went inside for breakfast.
He also found his vegetable garden had been nicely watered.
His wife looked at him for a long time.
"You knew they would try to empty the well," she said.
"I thought they might," he said.
A clever problem sometimes does not need a clever solution. It just needs to be placed somewhere that makes other people do all the work.
