There were a lot of monkeys living near a village. One day a man came and offered to pay $100 for each of these stray monkeys. The villagers thought he was mad.
Still, a few people caught some and took them to this man who really did give them $100 for each monkey. The word spread and more people caught more monkeys and sold them to him.
After a few days, the man said he'd pay $200 for each monkey. Now even the lazy villagers started catching and selling them for $200 each.
Then the man said he'd pay $500 for each monkey. Now all the villagers scrambled to catch the last few monkeys to sell to him.
Having bought all the monkeys and caged them and employed someone to feed them, the man said he would go home now but come back in a week's time to buy any more monkeys they could find for $1,000 each.
But the villagers had no more monkeys to sell. Then the man's employee told them he'd sell them back some monkeys secretly - for $700 each. Word spread: if they could buy monkeys for $700 which the man when he returned would pay $1,000 for, they'd make a quick and easy profit.
The next day, villagers were queuing up to buy monkeys at $700. The rich villagers bought monkeys in big lots. Even the poor villagers had borrowed money to buy some. Then they waited for the man to return.
But he never came! The villagers tried to find the man's employee but he'd left too. Then they realised they had bought a whole lot of useless monkeys for $700 each!
Bitcoin will be the next monkey business. It will make a few people filthy rich and bankrupt an awful lot of others.
