Example of Presence of mind by CHANAKYA

Location : Takshashila

Situation : Two students are waiting for Aacharya Chanakya to arrive.

Aacharya is walking towards them when his foot is pierced with a thorn of a road side shrub. He takes the thorn away and while the students are watching goes to a nearby shop and purchases Mattha ( a cold sweet drink made using curd). And then he proceeds to put the entire glassful in the shrub itself.

His students , surprised at the turn of the events , move forward to greet him and the following conversation takes place.

Student: We were deeply disturbed that your foot got pierced by a thorn and we could not do anything.

Aacharya Chanakya: It is not important what happened. How I reacted is the important part.

Student: That is what we were discussing. We could not understand it.

Aacharya Chanakya: The thorn was a problem. I had to destroy it by its roots so that it can never grow back. So I put Mattha in it which will serve as an invitation to the ants that will come now and destroy the shrub from the roots itself.

This philosophy of destroying each and every problem from the root up was what led to the series of events that put Chandragupta Maurya on the throne of the Magadha Empire with absolutely no resistance once he ascended it . Because Aacharya Chanakya not only destroyed the existing Nanda empire but also made sure that no powerful ruler was in a position to fill the power vacuum thus created except Chandragupta Maurya. That would be a tale for another day.

Edit : This incident has been mentioned in various books/ tv series with slight variations. The above answer has been taken from Chandragupta Maurya TV series.