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Summary for "The Lady or Tiger"

The story first introduces a "semi-barbaric" king, who has implemented a unique form of justice within his kingdom: if the king believes that someone has committed a crime, they are placed in an arena and forced to choose blindly between two identical doors. Behind one door is a beautiful lady who will promptly become the accused’s wife; behind the other door is a tiger. Then the Kings daughter falls in love with a very handsome man. The king puts the man in an arena and forces him to choose blindly between the two identical doors. But the Man looks at the daughter and daughter tells the man to choose the door to the right. Then the author wants you to finish the story.

User ZhaoGang
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[...] But the Man looks at the daughter and daughter tells the man to choose the door to the right. Then the apprehensive man looks the king right in the eye and refuses to choose any door. The surprised king asks the man why he refuses to obey the orders of his king and his princess.

The man promptly replies that because of selfishness and a concern for the princess's happiness he is unable to escape one of the doors. This is because if he chooses the door where the tiger is, he will be killed and his soul will wander the land without peace, until the love of his life, the princess, meets him in the Hereafter. However, if he chooses the door where a beautiful maiden is placed, he will have to marry a woman with whom he is not in love, leaving three unhappy lives. His life, for not marrying the one he loves, the life of his wife, for being married to a man who does not love her, and the life of the princess, for seeing her love with another woman.

So instead of choosing between the doors, he chooses to ask, dearly, that the king grant her the daughter's hand in marriage, thus preventing three souls from living in suffering.

The king, moved by the man's words and seeing his daughter's happiness, has no choice but to allow marriage.

User Blazerg
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