The king and the rice

A long time ago, there was a king in India. The king's favourite game was chess.

One day, a wise old man came to the place and the king challenged him to a game. The king promised the old man, "You can have any prize if you win the game."

The old man said, "If I win the game, I'd like one grain of rice for the first square of the chessboard, two for the second, four for the third, and then double the amount for each of the rest of the squares."

"Is that all?" asked the king. "Wouldn't you like gold or silver instead?"

"No, just rice," replied the old man.

The king and the old man played the game for a long time, Finally, the old man won, So the king ordered his men to collect a bag of rice. He put one grain on the first square, two on the second, and so on. The king quickly realized the problem-even with all the rice in the country, the would still not have enough rice to put on all the squares!