Farmer and his ducks “I am leaving for the market, dear” the farmer waved goodbye to his wife. “Fetch a good price for the golden egg” his wife replied. “Yes, sure.” The farmer rode into town and on his way met an old friend, who was leaving the town, “Are you also going to sell the ducks, that lay golden eggs?” he enquired curiously.
The farmer was perplexed, “Why on earth should I sell the ducks?” he shot back.
“A fancy new place has opened in the market, since our last visit, where people can buy and sell the ducks” he clarified. “Oh! is it so” pondered the farmer.
“Yes and there is a lot of interest among the villagers and they are patronising this fancy new market system of trading ducks” he replied.
“Ok, I will check it after I sell my egg” and waved goodbye to his friend. After completing his errands in the market, he checked out the tent which was put up to trade the ducks. As his friend said, there was a lot of commotion and people were busy trading ducks with one another. The farmer enquired and familiarised himself with the ways of the trading system. On his way back home he pondered about the merits and disuseful.
advantages of such a system. He was finally convinced that it was
Whenever he visited the market, he enquired about the price of the ducks and found that thy were almost always right.
This system went on for years without a hitch. One day a traveller came to the village and observed their ways. He was a con-man and could immediately see a way to profit from their folly. “Why are you not trading ducks like everyone?” the traveller asked the farmer. “You can call me old school” the farmer replied, “I am happy with the proceeds from the sale of my eggs and from taking good care of my ducks.”
“If I told you that, I know a magic trick to split the duck into two,” “You
mean
I
could
have
eyes widened with excitement.
two
ducks
instead
of
one”
the
farmer’s
“Yes” replied the traveller.
“Your scheme sounds too good to be true.”
“In a way, yes” he replied “the catch is, the split ‘lame’ duck will only lay half the size egg and not as before.”
“Aha! then yours is a useless magic trick” answered the farmer, “we are no better after splitting, than before.” “But, I will make it work, if you promise to split equally the extra gain” enticed the traveller. The farmer agreed, now he was more curious, as how it might work. But he insisted, “You should mention to the villagers about the ducks lameness before selling. You should not hide this fact, as I do not intend to cheat my people” demanded the farmer. “Agreed” said the traveller. The farmer was shocked that he agreed to this. “Now who in their right minds would buy such ‘lame’ duck's, when there are good ones around” he thought to himself.
The next day both of them went to the market, with one of their ‘lame’ duck. “Lame duck, lame duck, get yours here” shouted the traveller. “What is ‘lame’ duck?” enquired a buyer.
“They lay only half-size eggs, unlike a good duck” the traveller explained, and winked at the farmer indicating that he has adhered to his request. “What is the price?” buyer enquired. “What price did you pay to get a good one?” enquired back the traveller. “A 100 clams” buyer replied.
“Then it is 100 clams, for my duck, my friend.” The buyer then proceeded to pay, the traveller, by which time the farmer almost had a heart attack. The farmer asked the stranger, how could this work? “The have forgotten the fundamental difference from whence their wealth comes from. Do you understand how wealth is produced?”
“Yes, it is not by trading with one another in a market system, but by the ducks” replied the farmer.
“You are doing a fundamentally right thing that not everybody
is
doing.
Once
a
market has developed for trading them, the villagers have started to focus on the price of the ducks rather than the eggs they can get from them. They have conveniently chosen to forget this very important detail, so they are oblivious to this trick.” The farmer felt bad about this and decided to teach them this difference. He thought, “Since the ducks are all of the same colour, could have been the reason for this blunder.”
He wanted to highlight the difference more prominently, so he coloured his lame ducks, yellow. But this did not even raise an eyebrow.
Then the colours were progressively darkened, from yellow to brown to blue to red, but to no vain.
No one even bothered to notice. So he painted them in desperation, checks of bright blue and orange, red and green and all such combination's he could imagine. Did it do the trick, no it didn't even tick. He thought “I am doing it all wrong, it is not the colour, that mattered, maybe it is their quack.” To the dismay of the ducks he tied their beaks, so that they could not even crack. This didn’t click either.
He said to himself, “It is not their colour or their quack, it must be their walk.” So he tied bamboo sticks to their legs and made them walk to this trick.
Short stilts, long stilts, fat stilts, lean stilts, but not a soul bothered to ask,
“Why this contraption?” but instead the same old, annoying and frustrating question that he had been hearing all through, "What is the price?” With this the farmer gave up in desperation and lost hope to impart this difference to the villagers.
The End