At that time

Once upon a time, in a small village, there lived a wise old man who was known for his mysterious riddles and puzzling games. One day, he took an interest in teaching the villagers a new game called ‘Crossword Puzzle’ that had just arrived in town. The villagers were curious and eager to learn this intriguing game, which required them to fill in words based on the given clues.

As the old man began to explain the rules of the game, he tossed in a riddle to keep the villagers on their toes. He said, “I’m a word that means ‘at that time,’ but remove my first letter, and I become a word that means ‘now.’ What am I?” The villagers looked puzzled, but soon got the answer as they filled in the crossword puzzle with the given clues.

The answer, of course, was ‘THEN.’ At that time, it made sense to the villagers, and now they knew it forevermore. From that day on, the villagers became avid players of the game and continued to challenge the old man with their own creative crossword puzzles. And every time they filled in the answer ‘THEN,’ they chuckled and remembered the wise old man’s clever riddle.