Worthless Paper in Writings

One man holds a piece of paper in his hands. He stops an unkempt passerby. With an excited look on his face he says to the other, “If you plow my land, I will give this to you.” He looks at it quizzically and shakes his head. Why would he do such a thing for nothing but a piece of paper? The man tells him “That is not true. You can take this piece of paper and go to the village and offer it to them for food.” So he does the work and heads to the village. There they too do not recognize this piece of paper as anything significant. He says “Give to me this bread, and I will give you this money. Take it to the nearest village and they will give you a beautiful home.” The baker agrees. He takes this money to the next village and walks into a home. It is occupied, but he wants to purchase it with his piece of paper. He convinces the dwellers to leave, saying “Take this to the next town and they will give you power and dominion.” They look at each other, then together agree and so they pack quickly and leave to find the power they seek. They go to the next town and show the paper up to everyone. No one will bow to them. No one is giving offerings. No praise or respect. The townspeople are confused by these foreigners who then become frustrated that their expectations are not being met. “Why won’t you bow to us. We demand power and dominion over you!” Someone steps up and softly says “What you are offering is nothing but a piece of paper. Why would we give up our freedom for that?”   They frown together, one says “But we gave up our home.”  They go back to the house and express their upset to the man who took it from them. “I only told you that so you would give me your house. I gave up my bread for it. I did not want to lose again.” One of them responds, “No you did not. You gave us this piece of paper, not a loaf of bread.” He explains, “I exchanged my bread for the paper money. I was told I could exchange it for a home.” They were surprised that he was just as easily fooled as they were. The man recognized they’d all made the same mistake, and knowing the house was not rightfully his, he decided to take the paper back and go on his way.” Traveling back to the original village, the man finds the one with whom he made the exchange for his bread. “Can I have my loaf of bread back please? You lied to me. I did not get a beautiful home.” He replies, “I already ate it.” The man sulks for a moment, and the other points, “Over there, the tall one, he is the one who made this whole thing up about money.” He approaches the tall man.  “Why did you convince that man over there that this piece of paper was worth something?” He said “Because I did not feel like plowing my own fields. I wanted someone else to do it for me.”  “But it is worthless! It’s just a piece of paper!”  “Yes, but he believed it had value, and I took advantage of his labor because of his mistaken belief.”