Three Cups of Tea

In 1993, a climber named Greg Mortenson stumbled down from K2—the second-tallest and deadliest mountain in the world—after 78 days on the mountain, failed to summit, separated from his party, nearly freezing to death with one power bar and a thin sleeping bag. As he lay in the snow accepting his own death, he reflected on his life: born in Minnesota, raised in Tanzania where his parents were Christian missionaries building hospitals and schools, the sudden death of his younger sister Krista when he was 22. He was holding a necklace from her effects that he'd planned to leave at the summit. He didn't make it. But the necklace gave him the strength to stand up and keep going.

What happened next became one of the most famous stories in modern philanthropy—and one of the most thoroughly debunked.

The Story That Launched a Movement