A friend send me the following in Portuguese. I find it hilarious:
A traveler arrives at a hotel to sleep, but asks to see the room first.
He leaves two banknotes of 100 euros at the reception as a deposit.
While the traveler checks out the rooms, the hotel manager runs out of the hotel with the two 100 euro banknotes. He goes to the grocery next door to pay an old debt...exactly the 200 euros.
Surprised by the sudden payment of the debt, the grocer takes advantage by paying a supplier an old debt. Also 200 euros.
The supplier take the two bank notes and runs to the pharmacy to pay a debt of his there: Exactly 200 euros.
The pharmacist, with the notes in his hand, runs quickly to a bar next door to pay a prostitute. By coincidence the debt is 200 euros.
The grateful prostitute, leaves with the money in direction of the hotel, her favorite place to take clients. However, lately she has not paid for the rooms.
Her debt: 200 euros.
She tells the manager she is paying her debt and leaves the bank notes on top of the reception desk.
Precisely at this moment, the traveler comes back after having had a look at the rooms. He expected something else, he said, and takes the two notes back, says thank you and leaves the hotel.
Nobody earned or spent a cent, but the whole town is now debt free, everyone's credit has been reestablished and all are looking confidently towards the future.
Economics is a difficult matter to understand!
The government, praised be the politicians, understands it all:
