The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around,
went out to the forest and started to catch them.

The man bought thousands at $10 each, but as the supply
began to diminish, and it became harder to catch them,
the villagers stopped their efforts.

He next announced that he would buy monkeys at $20 each.

The villagers renewed their efforts and started to catch monkeys again.

But as the supply diminished even further,
people soon lost interest again.

When the man increased his offer to $25 each, monkeys

became so scarce it was an effort just to find one,

let alone catch it!

The man then announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each!

Since he had to go to meeting in the city,
he said his assistant would buy the monkeys on his behalf.

After the man left, his assistant told the villagers,
"Look at all the monkeys my boss has already bought.
I'll sell them to you for $35 each,
and when he returns from the city,
you can sell them to him for $50."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the man's monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again -
only lots and lots of monkeys!