Anuraag and his friends were playing cricket in their apartment complex. One of them spotted a poster on a tre announcing a “Summer Carnival”.
“That sounds exciting!” said Anuraag. “Hey! Look, there is something about holding a stall of your choice. Shall we do something? We could earn money and buy something nice for ourselves!”
“Sounds good!” said Rajiv.
ADVERTISEMENT
After much discussion, they figured that making juice should be easy. Moreover being summer, they would have good business.
Setting up shop
On the day of the carnival, each one of them makes a jug of juice of their choice. The building association helped them set up the stall with a bright banner that said, “Beat the Heat With Juice!” The boys were excited. They could hardly wait for the carnival to begin.
ADVERTISEMENT
Anuraag said, “What will we do with the money we earn?”
“Maybe we could spend it on a game or perhaps chocolate cake,” said Rajiv.
But Rahul thought otherwise. He said, “Let’s split the money so we can buy whatever we want.”
“That makes sense.” said Anuraag.
The carnival began and in a while as it became hotter, a big queue lined up in front of their juice stand.
A little boy asked for orange juice. Anuraag gave him a glass and said, “That is Rs.15.”
The boy counted 15 potato chips and gave it to Anuraag.
“What’s this? You need to give money. I cannot take this,” said Anurag.
But, the boy did not have money. He looked confused. Fortunately, an adult stepped in and paid for the boy.
Why does Anuraag have no use for potato chips? Because, he cannot buy a chocolate cake by giving it at the bakery. The baker cannot use potato chips in his cake and so has no use for it. He could use eggs in exchange, but Anuraag does not have eggs to give. Similarly, the baker cannot use the chips to get eggs from the poultry store.
The store owner has no use for a bag of chips. The problem is solved when each person gives something that can be used everywhere.
That something is “money”. If the cake costs Rs.100, Anuraag can take Rs.100 from his share of the earnings from the juice stall. The baker can exchange that money to get eggs and other ingredients to make the cake.
The poultry owner would use the money given by the baker, to buy grain for the hens. All this would not be possible with the bag of chips.