Once upon a time, a rich businessman from the city arrived in a village for a new business establishment. He announced that he would buy Monkeys for $100 each.
Excited by the announcement, the villagers went to the nearby forest to fetch some monkeys. They brought the monkeys and sold them to the businessman for $100 each. The villagers had a gala time, as they got a good living by selling the monkeys to the businessman. But this joy was short-lived, as the monkeys started becoming sparse in the forest.
Sensing this, the businessman offers $200 for every monkey. The villagers were now ecstatic and started working with more enthusiasm and better ways to catch the monkeys. The radius of catching monkeys kept on increasing along with the efforts.
Soon, the entire region was short of monkeys. Realizing this, the businessman announced he would pay $400 for each monkey. The villagers began climbing trees and risking their lives to catch monkeys and get them to the businessman – who bought them all.
There were no monkeys left in the forest or any nearby area at all! The businessman knew that there would come a day when this situation would arise. He now announced that he was going to the city for some work and when he would return he wanted more monkeys. This time he was willing to pay $1000 for each monkey.
The villagers were in dismay. As much as they were excited, they were in serious pressure of obtaining monkeys. They were desperate to get more monkeys from whichever source they could.
Meanwhile, there was news floating that some new circus team has arrived in the nearby village and was ready to sell monkeys at $500 each.
The villagers were overjoyed. They had done the mental calculations. They would buy the monkeys at $500 each and sell them to the businessman for $1000 once he comes back from the town. This was the easiest way to double their money.
The villagers brought in all their savings and even borrowed money to buy the monkeys. There were huge queues and, within a few hours, almost all the monkeys from the circus were sold out. Unfortunately, their happiness did not last long, as the business never returned.
Many villagers kept the monkeys with them, hoping the businessman would come back. But soon, they lost hope and had to let the monkeys back into the forest, as feeding and taking care of the troubled monkeys became a difficult and costly affair.
Investment Lessons:
- Every investment is a worthwhile investment if you can find a greater fool to buy it from you.
- Not every avenue of investment to double your money is genuine.
- In investment schemes, you should know when to exit the game.
- Anything that is too good to be true should be examined very carefully and invested very wisely.