Problem solving story: How to find the right solution when you are completely stuck

One day when a young boy was walking home from school worrying about how much homework he has to do, he came across an accident. It just so happened that a big truck got stuck under a bridge in the middle of a road and no car could pass the bridge because of it. Luckily nobody was hurt. Over time people started to gather and observe what was going on. There was also a lot of policemen and firemen trying to get the truck unstuck. But none of them knew how to solve this problem as the truck was completely stuck and wouldn’t budge an inch.

The bridge where the truck got completely stuck was on one of the main roads into and out of the city and traffic started to pile up. After a couple of hours, even the mayor came to look at what was the problem with his whole team since they have been receiving complaints about the traffic jam. But even with the mayor’s help the fireman and policeman didn’t find a solution on how to get the truck unstuck. Shortly the mayor also called every engineer in town for help and even they couldn’t find a way to get the truck unstuck without damaging the bridge. Towards the end of the day, they brought heavy equipment and tried pulling the truck out. But even then they were unsuccessful.

After all this time the young boy approached the mayor and suggested a simple solution, “The truck is completely stuck the way it is right now. So why don’t you take the air out of the tires and then pull the truck out? You see if you take the air out of the tires the truck will be lowered and become unstuck.” The mayor was stunned at the suggestion, but at the same time desperate enough to try what the boy suggested. The mayor ran the idea with his team and they decided to give it a go. In no time at all the completely stuck truck was unlodged and people could carry on with their lives. The mayor was shocked by how a group of grown men and women couldn’t figure out something that a little boy could.