Marriage or Death

A poor, young knight wants to marry a beautiful princess and she also wants to marry him. But the king does not want to marry her daughter to a poor fellow. He summons the knight to the royal assembly and offers a choice. He can draw one of two slips of paper out of a golden urn. One will say 'marriage' and one will say 'death'. The princess is able to whisper to the knight that both slips of paper really say 'death'. The knight and the princess end up being wed. How does the knight accomplish this?

Answer:

The knight picks a slip of paper and immediately tears it up. He then takes out the other slip and hands it to the king. Since the untorn slip of paper says 'death', the knight says that obviously the one he tore up said 'marriage'.