Realizing that the giant could help him rescue his ship, he approached, and told the giant of a bag full of beautiful gems that was on his ship.
"If you help me move my ship from the reef, I will split the gems in the bag with you," said the captain, and the giant readily agreed. They returned to the ship, and the giant broke off a tree to use as a lever. In just an hour, he had hefted the ship from off the reef and it floated free again.
"Where are my pretty gems?" the giant asked. The Captain produced the sack, and poured the gems onto the beach, where they glittered in the sunlight. Quickly, he arranged them in a rough circle. "Here's how we'll divide them," he told the giant. "I'll go around the circle and take every second gem." The giant nodded, and the captain began counting.
He picked up the first gem, skipped the second, picked up the third, and so on, until he came to the last gem, which he skipped - and then picked up the next! The giant frowned, for he was certain something strange was going on, but the Captain was taking every other gem, just like he promised. In a few moments, the sand was empty and all the gems were in the Captain's sack.
The pirate waved a farewell to the giant
and rowed out to his ship, while the giant sat and puzzled about how the
Captain had been able to trick him. He sat and thought for so long that
he turned to stone, and if you're brave enough to sail to the beaches of
Ghauma, you can still see that stone today, sitting on the beach and wondering
where the gems went.