It's a lateral thinking problem. OF COURSE it has to be simple and clever. You can answer lateral thinking problems in many ways, since they are open ended. However, answers must abide by the rules, and answers that just go completely out of reality (like buying more gold, etc) are unacceptable.
The act of "giving" is the lateral part here. You can give someone a piece of gold and then take it back the next day in order to give them change. It doesn't negate the rule "you must give him a piece of gold every day" since you are giving him a piece of gold every day, in the same way a mother gives a child a chocolate bar (i.e. handing it over). As I already explained though, nothing prevented you in the question from taking back the gold in order to do some clever mathematics.
As for your pot suggestion, it doesn't matter. It's completely irrelevant in terms of this problem as one of lateral thinking. You can "laterally think" it into the answer, but when your gold is coming up with a way in which the worker can be paid something each day, you are only making it harder for yourself to actually answer the question correctly. Why on earth would you want to do that?
As leo said, it's a mental exercise, nothing else.
The act of "giving" is the lateral part here. You can give someone a piece of gold and then take it back the next day in order to give them change. It doesn't negate the rule "you must give him a piece of gold every day" since you are giving him a piece of gold every day, in the same way a mother gives a child a chocolate bar (i.e. handing it over). As I already explained though, nothing prevented you in the question from taking back the gold in order to do some clever mathematics.
As for your pot suggestion, it doesn't matter. It's completely irrelevant in terms of this problem as one of lateral thinking. You can "laterally think" it into the answer, but when your gold is coming up with a way in which the worker can be paid something each day, you are only making it harder for yourself to actually answer the question correctly. Why on earth would you want to do that?
As leo said, it's a mental exercise, nothing else.
