Week 2 Story: The Gambler and The Fools
The Gambler and The Fools
*updated story on my portfolio -> https://sites.google.com/view/indianepicsportfolio/first-story
There once was a gambler named, Farah. This man was a trickster, who was very good at manipulating people and taking away people's money. Although, he would end up losing it all by gambling it away. Farah had to move cities every few weeks because his name was on the blacklist after he had taken much of the people's money. Not only was he blacklisted, there were mobs after to kill him. Frightened by this fact, he had to move quickly after taking the money. Farah had moved along 30 cities since he had started his adventure and came across a small town that seemed as if there were little to no people. The city he landed on was called, Dahu. This city was a small town that had a handful of people, but held a sufficient amount of money. Once Farah figured this fact out, he decided to plan something in order to fill his pockets once again. He knew that he had a small amount of money left and at the rate he was moving, he was going to starve. Once Farah had planned a tactic to use on these townspeople, he dressed as a rich man and moved along to his plan.
*Running into some townsmen, he approached them with the question:
Farah: "Hello, would you like to make some easy money?"
*Knowing people would give this a try, he had something to follow up on their answer.
Townspeople: "How so?"
Farah: "If you give me x amount, I shall double that for you."
Townsman: "Can you make 5 dollars into 10 then?"
Farah: "Why of course! Just hand me the money and I shall go double this for you. Just wait here and i'll be back with double the amount!"
*5 minutes later ...
Farah: "Hello kind sir, I am back with 10 dollars!
Townsman: "Where did you go off to? How did you double my money?
Farah: "I believe the important fact here is that I have doubled your money. Any other takers?"
*Within 30 seconds, the whole town showed up and started throwing their money at Farah.
Townspeople: ME! ME! ME! OVER HERE!!
Farah: "Very well then, I shall double all this money for you all and be back!
*5 minutes later ...
Farah: "I am back with your money. You guys are twice as rich now!"
Townspeople: "AGAIN, AGAIN! WE'LL GIVE YOU ALL OUR MONETARY POSSESSIONS!
*Excited as can be, Farah had to keep his composure.
Farah: "Very well then, I shall make one last trip for all you great folks!"
Townspeople: "THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
*The moment he received all their money, he left and never returned . . .
Author's Note: I got my ideas of this story from The Cunning Crane and the Crab by W.H.D Rouse. In Rouse's story, he used a Crane and bunches of fish. In his story, the Crane plots a plan to eat all the fish and successfully does so. Although, in the end, he dies from the crab. My story is somewhat alike from his, but the characters, plot, and basically everything is different. The idea of plotting something in order to gain self pleasure was the theme I got from Dr. Rouse's story.
Bibliography: The Cunning Crane and the Crab by W.H.D Rouse.
It's interesting to see how the commonly used Ponzi scheme was also used in this story. The get rich quick scheme is often promising at first and then all of a sudden they realize that they had been duped! Those poor townspeople, hopefully they have learned their lessons and will not be taken advantage of again in the future.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the picture that you used, he definitely looks like a gambler!
Hi Paul!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your story! I would have never thought of re-writing the story the way you did on how a sneaky gambler who took all those poor townspeople's money for his benefit. I can't imagine being one of those townspeople. I would be so mad that I fell for his trick. Overall, I think you did a really good job on conveying the theme from the original story!
Hi Paul, I really enjoyed the scheme of this story! I like how well you turned the crane into a gambler, and I think you did a great job setting up the character in the introduction. I think it's interesting how he is able to consistently double money, and it would be interesting to see if he was able to just go between towns doubling money to increase his wealth higher.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul! I did not expect to read about a Ponzi scheme in these course, but I'm glad I did. I very much so enjoyed the story. Your writing with the dialog was incredible. I do think that possibly the introduction could have flowed a little better. However, that is a very small critique and the dialog was so well done it overshadows this. Overall I thought the story was outstanding.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved the characterization you gave the swindler from the very get-go: you did an excellent job of setting up his backstory in a concise way, and let the reader know his motivations as well. Potential starvation is a powerful motivator, and I thought it added depth to his character.
This story made me wonder about ponzi schemes in Ancient India, which is a new one for me! It also provided insight into alternate ways to approach dialogue, as your method of bold names and italics made it very easy to follow.
The picture you chose really personifies your main character- what if you placed it at the beginning of the post rather than at the end? Maybe it’s better to end with it and leave the reader with the final impression? Also I’m so impressed that you got this really original work from the Cunning Crane and the Crab. Overall it was very creative and evident that you put a lot of work into the formatting! Thanks for a fun read!
Hey Paul!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your story! I was wondering the whole time how he was going to pull off the heist! When I got to how he did it, I was thinking how simple yet effective it was. One thing I was wondering is what would have happened if they wouldn't have come back the second time after he had given their money back. I liked the picture you had with the story and how it brought me into the time the story was set in. When he gambled, did he gamble in the towns he stole from? It would have been interesting to see him gamble his money away and then trick them into giving the money right back to him. Bottom line is that the story was great! You did a great job leading up to why he needed the money and the urgency to get money so he won't starve. When I read your authors note, I saw exactly where your story came from. I look forward to more from you!