 Solomon’s handling of the situation can be turned into a social procedure that is repeatable, as follows. Solomon does not call for a sword, but instead explains to the two women the following procedure. First he is going to ask the first woman if she is willing to give up the child. If the answer is “yes”, the dispute is resolved, with no further questions asked. Otherwise he will ask the other woman if she is willing to give up the child. Again, if the answer is “yes” the dispute is resolved. If they both refuse, then the child is his, and then he will allow one of the women to buy it back, at a price that is to be determined as follows. They will both write an amount of money on a sheet of paper, without their names. If the two bids are \(A\) and \(B\), then the price of the child is set at \(\frac{A + B}{2}\), and fate will determine which woman is going to get the child at that price, where the other woman has to pay a small fine. If the two women are rational, one of them will give up the child when being first asked (see Moore 1992 and Pauly 2005; for philosophical discussions of rationality, see the entries on  practical reason  &amp;  game theory and ethics).