The intention of making this story is that, perhaps, it can generate some positive reflection, about us, and our behavior as far as money is concerned.
There was once, a very quiet town called Weststone, where a young man named Jack lived, and who lived in the house furthest away from the town.
One afternoon Jack went out to walk and was thirsty, when he returned home he took a bottle of wine, and an idea occurred to him that had not occurred to anyone in town.
There were no bars in the town! Not a single bar!
He thought that if he had a bar, he could earn some money and in turn benefit the whole town. He was happy with the idea of opening a bar.
That afternoon Jack's friend, Jon, went by the house and upon hearing the idea of Jack gave him a good name for the bar. In such a way that the idea of effectively opening a bar was taking the road.
But Jack realized that it was necessary to buy tables, chairs, glasses, to prepare a place so that the clients of the bar could place their horses.
When he made the account, he discovered that it was going to cost him at least 10,000 coins.
Jack did not have 10,000 coins because he was poor, but during the night he came up with a way to get the money he needed to open the bar.
Jack cut out 1,000 pieces of paper, and wrote in them the following statement "Soon Jack's Bar".
On Sunday after mass, Jack went to the square wearing his best suit, and told all the neighbors:
-Dear neighbors, I am going to open a bar in the outskirts of the town.
-Good idea! - Some said.
Jack felt very good about having everyone's attention, and then he pulled the papers he had previously cut out of his pockets and said:
-Each one of these papers costs 10 coins. Whoever buys me each of these papers will have to keep them, because within a month, when I open my bar, I will pay 12 coins for each paper you give me back.
Then there were whispers throughout the square, and Jack's friend, Jon, who was the fool of the town, asked:
-Keep a moment Jack, each paper costs 10, why you will give away after 2 more coins.
-I'm not giving away anything, Jon, I'm compensating, I'm going to compensate with 2 coins to the people that help me fulfill my dream of opening a bar.
Then the mayor, who was in the square, approached and said:
-It makes sense; it makes a lot of sense, very good Jack.
And William, who was rich and understood business, said that the idea seemed excellent to him. For his part, the priest, Richard, took some coins from under his cassock, and said:
-It's a very Christian idea! I want some of your papers.
And everyone started buying Jack's papers. In that simple way, and in just one morning, Jack managed to get all the money he needed to open his bar. Among all the neighbors they bought him 1,000 papers.
-I bought two of them - said Tom - who was poor but optimistic.
-I bought him thirty-six - Frank shouted - he was greedy and haughty.
Jack went to his house on the outskirts of town, and went to sleep thinking about his dream, which was to set up a bar.
The next day, which was Monday, Jack traveled to the city and bought wood, paint, and everything he needed to build his bar. He did not go through the town square for the next four weeks.
Jack did not hear about the mess he was going to put together because of those papers.
On Monday of the first week there were more people in the square than usual. Many neighbors had spent the entire night cutting papers, because they had also discovered that they had projects that they had not been able to carry out for lack of money.
The papers said, "Soon Mark's ice cream shop", others "Soon Chelsea's hairdressing salon", there were even papers written by Jon with misspellings that said "I'll make trips to the moon at the end of the month".
The neighbors went up to the lampposts of the square so that the other neighbors could buy the papers, they went up to the fountain to exchange papers for coins. Tuesday was even worse, and on Wednesday you could not even walk through the square due to the rowdy crowd that was there.
The mayor had to put order and enabled a closed place, property of the municipality, so that the neighbors could change the papers without causing disturbances in the square. This site was baptized as the hall of papers.
That was how, on Friday, all those who had a project had obtained the money necessary to carry it out and had gone to work. Mark was already looking for milk, cream and ice for his ice cream parlor; Chelsea sharpened the scissors for her hairdressing salon, and Jon had bought two skinny horses to make trips to the moon.
Only a group of neighbors who had never come up with an interesting project remained in the hall of papers, the only thing these neighbors had were the papers of other people. One of these neighbors, Patrick, complained:
-I have spent my money buying paper and now I do not have money to buy some things that I need.
Other neighbors had the same problem. Then, Tom raised his hand and waved the papers telling everyone he was willing to sell the papers he bought to Jack, in only 8 coins.
-Done deal! - said William - he was rich but he wanted more money.
And in this way many neighbors sold their papers at a lower price than they had purchased to be able to meet various needs that had been presented to them. At that time, the neighbors who bought these papers, met their eyes and rubbed their hands, never before had an idea to do some project, but now they had realized that there was a new way of doing business.
It was then that the priest Richard arrived, who arrived sad from the church and said:
-Friends, the day that Jon put his papers for sale, I bought him a few, but Jon sells them to 7 coins and says that he will return 20, but I do not have money to fix the bell tower.
The neighbors who remained in the room responded:
-I'm sorry, Father Richard, we can not buy, there's no way for that project to succeed.
Then, the priest, head down, left the room with Jon's papers. That was the first time in many years that no one had helped him repair the church.
And so it happened the first week.
In the second week, Jack's house no longer looked like a house, but it seemed something else, in the dining room there was a wooden bar, the large bathroom of his house had now been converted into two bathrooms, one for ladies and another for gentlemen, the walls were half painted blue. Jack was happy with the progress he had in building his bar.
Since Jack had not been to the town, he still did not know that the lives of his neighbors were mess of papers that were going from here to there, changing prices and ownership. Even the mayor, after speaking with his secretary, decided to participate in the new fashion.
One morning, the mayor came out on the balcony with a megaphone and said:
-Neighbors, the square was spoiled after the fury of the papers, I need to raise funds to fix the damage to the streetlights, to renew the source, and to buy a motor car. From this moment I put on sale 1,000 official papers.
-How much they cost? - Tom asked.
-No coins, my papers cost a horse. When the fountain returns to give water and the street lamps come back to light, I will return two horses per paper - answered the mayor.
The mayor's papers were sold in record time, all the citizens gave their horses to the mayor, and from that day, the daily tasks began to be done walking. While that happened the papers were still being traded every day. Some papers were very wanted, like those of Jack, who worked day and night in the construction of his bar, but other papers, nobody wanted them, like those of Jon, because his artifact to travel to the moon only had two horses and a car, nobody believed that that will take off.
William, the rich neighbor, had bought many papers the first week and now he wanted to get rid of Jon's papers, but since he also had papers from Jack, he came up with something brilliant, and called it William's packages.
What he did was take 10 papers from Jack's bar project, 20 papers from Mark's ice cream project, and 70 papers from Jon's lunar project, and he put them together in a single bundle of papers, exposing Jack's papers, and placing Jon's papers in the background so they would go unnoticed.
On Thursday, neighbors who wanted to buy papers from Jack, Mark, Chelsea, or the Mayor, could buy them through William's packages. But on Friday, Frank discovered the trick, and warned:
"Careful, neighbors, be careful, William's packages contain papers from Jack or the Mayor at the top, and that's fine, but deep down there's a lot of Jon's papers, and he'll never go to the moon. So before buying William's packages, ask for my advice, I'll only charge you two coins.
Since then the neighbors always asked for Frank's advice first before buying a package from William. And William and Frank who had been friends for many years ceased to be friends forever.
And so the second week went by.
When the third week began, some projects were already finished, while others were just beginning. Jack, for example, only needed to finish building the horses' place. Mark just needed to bring ice from the city to complete his ice cream shop, and Chelsea still could not find a good place for his hairdressing salon, for his part, Jon's artifact did not look like it would fly.
The neighbors who had Jon or Chelsea papers were uneasy because they could not sell them to anyone, until Frank showed up with a great idea and said:
-Those who have papers of Jon or Chelsea do not worry, I can sell them "tranquility of Frank".
-What is that? - Tom asked him.
-It's very easy, the one with Jon papers pays me two coins from now, until the end of the month, and if Jon can not make trips to the moon, I paid the twenty coins promised by Jon.
-Although Jon fails? - everyone asked.
-Yes - answered Frank.
-Excellent idea! - Tom said - and all the neighbors started to pay Frank two coins.
In the midst of the euphoria generated by the purchase and sale of papers, no one in the town noticed that the mayor had not fixed the streetlights or the fountain of the square. The mayor had fulfilled only part of the promise, he had escaped the town with a motor car. The only horses left in the town were Jon's, all the others had been taken by the mayor. The mayor's secretary, who knew the scam from the beginning, decided to do something to mislead people, went to the hall of papers and placed a blackboard where he rated with a score of 1 to 10 each project. At Jack's Bar he put an 8, to the hairdressing salon of Chelsea he put a 5, to the ice cream shop of Mark a 7, to the vehicle to make trips to Jon's moon he put a 2, and to the mayor's reforms of the square he put a 9.50.
-What do these numbers mean? - Tom asked.
-Those numbers represent the possibilities of concretion of each project - the secretary answered.
And so the third week passed.
When the fourth week arrived, Jack got up very early and walked quietly to the town, from far away he could see the facade of his bar, with the surprising luminous sign that could be seen in the distance and darkness. The bar was called The Moon, as Jon had recommended on the first day. Now all that was missing was for the neighbors to arrive on horseback, with their throats dry and very thirsty.
Jack traveled the five leagues to the town putting signs in all the trees of the road, "Bar The Moon open every night". Each poster he put, went away and stood proud looking at the poster. However, when he arrived at the town square, he did not understand anything of what was happening. He thought he had gone wrong and that he was in a different town. It seemed that a war was going on in that town, the streetlights and the fountain in the square were shattered, there was not a single horse in the streets, and the neighbors walked in circles talking to themselves.
-What happened here? - Jack asked Mark.
-Everyone went crazy with the papers, then there were more papers than coins, William's packages went bankrupt, Frank could not pay anyone, we're broke - Mark replied.
-What about your ice cream shop project? And Chelsea's hairdressing salon? - Jack asked him.
-My project failed, there were no horses to look for ice in the city and the ice cream melts, and Chelsea has no customers. Everyone has run out of money - Mark answered.
In the middle of everything, Tom asked Jack if he had managed to open the bar.
It was at that moment when Jack knew that without horses nobody would go to his bar, and then he could never pay the 12,000 coins, and he saw Jon in the middle of the square with the only two horses left in the town, which dragged three cars one behind the other in the form of a train, the neighbors climbed on them, and those that remained on the outside lined up to ride later.
-Where are all these people going? - Jack asked Jon.
-Where are these people going? To your bar, The Moon - answered Jon.
In the middle of the square was a sign that said "Jon makes trips to the moon, transport for 1 coin, the return is free".
-Did you know that everyone would lose their horses? - Jack asked.
-No, I only know one thing, people can go to a bar on horseback, but nobody can come back drunk, and since I do not drink, I thought that my business could be to take them and bring them from The Moon - Jon answered.
Then, Jack hugged Jon, get on the first car and shouted:
-We all go to The Moon, free drink the first night!
As you may have noticed, the paper room was an analogy of the stock exchange, the papers were the bonds or obligations, the money that would be received once the projects are specified is the nominal value of the bond, the The mayor's official papers are the public debt, the packages that William sold were debt obligations, Frank's advice was equivalent to investment banking, and the tranquility that Frank also offered was equivalent to the Credit Default Swap, the califications that the secretary placed the projects were the credit rating agency. The rest, I leave it to you and your interpretation.
See you in the future!
