MONKEY BUSINESS - a story with a moral ?

Are you sitting UNcomfortably ? OK -- I will begin !
"Once upon a time....

...... in a jungle village, a man named Bond appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for £10 each.

The villagers rushed into the forest and started catching them. Bond bought thousands at £10 each, but as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts, feeling they had enough lolly. So as an incentive Bond announced that he would now pay £20 per monkey.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and the villagers decided they had had enough of this hard work.

But Bond increased the reward to £25 each, so into the depths of the jungle they went until the supply of monkeys became so small that it was an effort find a single monkey, let alone catch it!

So now Bond announced that he would buy monkeys at £50! However, because he had to go to the City on business, he said that his assistant, Stock, would now buy on his behalf.

In the absence of Bond , Stock told the villagers: 'Look at this big cage - full of all the monkeys Bond has collected. I will sell them to you at £35 each, and when Bond returns from the City, you can sell them to him for £50 each.'

The villagers scraped together all their hard-earned, lifetime savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw Bond or Stock again - only monkeys everywhere... "