Two Stories - The Hut and Water

I am going to tell you TWO stories here today.

Story ONE: The HUT

Long long time ago there is one village which build their own huts which cost them $400 each.They live happily there but somehow they are not asset rich.

One day, one developer approaches them and promises them that he could make their huts value more by putting up sales to foreigners. A hut that cost $400 can sell $4000 in the new market that he is going to create. This is 10X the cost of the huts they own now but on one condition: they must let him buys cheap land and monopolize the building of huts in that village.

He will let them buy at "market subsidy" of the new huts he builds. He will sell them $3000 instead of $4000 of market price. So he shows them ...look.. now your hut as an assets is 10 times more than it used to be and I give you subsidies when you buy new flats! The deal is definitely a good deal!

Many peasants are happy until a few years later, when their children get married and have to pay $3000 for a SMALLER hut! Imagine....initially a hut only cost $400 to build, but now they have to pay $4000 per hut!


Another story The Water

Long long ago there is another village with a big wooden water container that provides water to everyone in the village. Everybody will have to contribute water once a while when the water runs low. Sometimes when rain.. then its a windfall and everybody saves the trouble. Everyone is happy until someone suggested to have one village head that could provide regular water to the collections.

Hey.. wouldn't it be good if someone just give us FREE water once a while...without us doing it ourselves? However, no one thinks much about being village head that needs to do extra work to fill the water on a regular basis.

One day, an outsider comes to the village and knows about this thinking. He wants to be the village head with a fee. He promised to give them one bucket of water per month but secretly, he punches three little holes into the wooden bucket and collected water from it. So everyone agrees to pay him a fee to be village head.

In one months time, after collecting 3 buckets of water from the three holes, he keeps his promise and gives one bucket of water to the villagers. Everyone is very pleased.

Wow.. got free water! They say. This goes on for some time until someone starts to challenge this village head to provide more water each month.

The village head then promises to give 2 buckets of water each month. Everyone is very happy. However he secretly pokes another 2 holes into the bucket. Thus by the end of the month, he collects 7 buckets of water but gives 2 buckets to the villagers.

The villagers are happy again but after some time, someone challenges him again,
saying the water uses up quite fast, so need to provide more water each month. Giving 2 buckets of water each month is just not enough. Everyone is tired to refill the water time and again as consumption seems to be very high. So the village head promises to give 3 buckets of water each month.

So again, he pokes another 2 holes into the bucket, now total of 7 holes to collect 10 buckets of water each month, giving 3 buckets to villagers.....

End of Story telling. :)

Goh Meng Seng