Many years ago in a Boston newspaper-probably the Boston Globe-a reviewer
wrote of a book in which the author-he may have been a
scientist-described a tale in which a king of times long past said
that he would convert if the priest who faced him could guess the
number which he would write on a piece of paper which the priest could
not possibly see. I should mention that if the king converted then his
entire people would be obliged to follow suit so a lot was at stake,
especially since the bargin included a promise by the priest that no
Christian would set foot in this king's country should he guess wrong.
Well, the priest did indeed guess rightly and the king and all his
people became Christians.
    Please find the book from which this story was taken and please
tell me where I might buy it. Also, please describe how your search
bore fruit.

---

Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 01 Jan 2004 21:54 PST

Might you recall what genre the book was in? Do you know if this was a
primary plot of the book, or was it one story among many? If you can
recall anything else whatsoever, it might help.

---

Clarification of Question by thika-ga on 02 Jan 2004 19:28 PST

I am quite certain that it was only one story among what may have been many.
I seem to remember that the book was written for layman and the
reviewer seemed to believe that the author of the book was somewhat in
sympathy with those regular joes who believe in God, leading me to
think that the writer must have been a mathematician or a scientist
since most people believe that scientists-rightly or wrongly-are
predominatly atheistic in their beliefs.