The Man and the Monkeys

The Man and the Monkeys: A Wall Street Fable

Once upon a time in a village a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers knew that there were many monkeys in their forest. They left their farms on the plains and went into the forest to catch them. The man bought thousands at $10.

As the supply of monkeys started to diminish the villagers stopped looking. Finding and catching monkeys was soon no longer worth the effort for $10. They started to return to their farms to plant the spring crop.

The man then announced that he would buy monkeys for $20 each. This new higher price renewed the effort of the villagers and they headed back into the forest to find and catch monkeys again to sell.

When the monkey supply diminished even further that summer and the people started to return to their farms, worried they had not made enough money selling monkeys to buy all the food they needed but had not planted any crops yet either, the man raised the price he'd pay for monkeys to $25 each. The hunt was on again.

Soon the supply of monkeys became so small that a villager didn't see a monkey in a day of hunting let alone catch one. Even at $25 each the effort was not profitable so the villagers finally headed back to their farms that fall. After nine month's absence from their farms they knew the time had passed to produce enough food for the coming winter, but at least now they had enough money from selling monkeys to buy food to eat.

But the man wasn't finished. He announced that he would buy monkeys for $50 each! The villagers became very excited. He also explained that he had to go to the city on business and that his assistant was to stay behind to buy monkeys on his behalf.

As soon as the man left the assistant told the villagers, "So you think you have made a lot of money selling monkeys, don't you? But do you want to really get rich?"

"Yes, yes!" said the villagers.

The man's assistant...