Mohnish Pabrai - Columbia Compounding Presentation

Mohnish starts the presentation telling the story of the creator of chess getting a reward from his king:

When the creator of the game of chess showed his invention to the ruler of the country, the ruler was so pleased that he gave the inventor the right to name his prize for the invention. The man asked the king for this - that for the first square of the chess board, he would receive one grain of rice, two for the second one, four on the third one, and so forth, doubling the amount each time. The ruler quickly accepted the inventor's offer and ordered the treasurer to count and hand over the rice to the inventor. The treasurer finally gave him the result of the calculation, and explained that it would take more than all the assets of the kingdom to give the inventor the reward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_an...