Monkey Business

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10. As monkeys became scarce, he upped the price to $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers. Soon the supply diminished again.

The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $100! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.

In the man’s absence, the assistant said to the villagers: “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $75 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $100 each.” The villagers brought out their life savings and bought all the monkeys.

Thereafter, they never saw the man nor his assistant again—only monkeys everywhere!