Week 11 Story: Aid ain't good

Once upon a time, two men named Mr. Wong and Mr. Taylor lived. Mr. Taylor lived in the United States and was a very wealthy man. In fact, Mr. Taylor was a successful entrepreneur and the richest man in the world, and he was benevolent and interested in helping other people who were in need.

Mr. Wong, on the other hand, was a poor farmer in rural China and desperately needed help because his crops weren't yielding much due to lack of quality seeds and fertilizers. Mr. Wong's government couldn't help him much either because it was very poor just like Mr. Wong. 

One day, a staff in Mr. Taylor's philanthropic foundation told Mr. Taylor about Mr. Wong's poor situation and his government's inability to help him to be lifted out of abject poverty. 

When Mr. Taylor, a very benevolent and philanthropic man, heard about Mr. Wong's situation, he decided to help Mr. Wong with all he had. Mr. Taylor was a sincere and humanistic man who was truly interested in helping and alleviating the suffering of people. With billions of dollars of resources, which included several different assets such as cash, stocks, and real estate, at his disposal, Mr. Taylor funded Mr. Wong's fragile farm. 

Mr. Taylor bought high-quality American seeds and fertilizers and sent them over to Mr. Wong's farm in China.  Mr. Taylor was so nice: he even went further to make Mr. Wong's self-sufficient farm into a flourishing international business. Mr. Taylor helped Mr. Wong establish a local trading office in Iowa to export Mr. Wong's crops from China to the United States. The cost of producing crops for Mr. Wong, which included Chinese land and labor, was way cheaper than what it was costing in the United States. In fact, it would only cost one-hundredth of what it would cost to produce the same amount of crops in the United States because the Chinese labor was so cheap. 

Mr. Wong's business became extremely competitive and undercut all the local American agriculture businesses. Mr. Wong became the first Chinese millionaire and richest man in China, but his greed didn't stop there. He wanted to become a billionaire like Mr. Taylor and wanted to take over all of his belongings, which included his American business and philanthropic foundation. 

So, Mr. Wong came up with an evil, cunning tactic. He invited Mr. Taylor to his farm in China. In a letter that was full of fake sincerity, Mr. Wong exaggerated his gratitude toward Mr. Taylor. Mr. Wong wanted to throw a traditional Chinese costume party for Mr. Taylor and told him that his party would be full of young, beautiful Chinese ladies. 

Mr. Taylor, who genuinely believed Mr. Wong's cunning tactic, gladly flew over to China to see Mr. Wong.

When Mr. Taylor arrived at Mr. Wong's farm, there was no Chinese costume party or a grand welcome. Instead, Mr. Wong's personal security guards who were heavily armed with guns and knives pointed their armory at Mr. Taylor's head. Naive Mr. Taylor trusted Mr. Wong so much that he didn't bring his American security guards on his trip.

Utterly shocked, Mr. Taylor told Mr. Wong, "What's going on man? Is this the result of helping you out?"

Mr. Wong replied, "Thank you Mr. Taylor. I have thoroughly appreciated your help. Now you need to do the last favor for me."

Then, the security guards brought a big, black signing table and chairs for the two men. On the table, there were some documents to sign. One of the documents read like this, "I, Mr. Taylor, yield all my property rights to Mr. Wong."


Mr. Taylor had to sign the outrageous documents because the security guards aimed their rifles at his head. The security guards even took their knives and threatened Mr. Taylor to make sure he signed the documents property with his authentic personal signature.


The last document Mr. Taylor signed was read, "This is my death testament and Mr. Wong shall inherit all of my wealth."


After he signed the documents, Mr. Taylor was buried alive into a deep earth hole that the security guards dig before he arrived. 

A person getting ripped off. Source: Being ripped off

Bibliography:

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912).



Author's Note: I re-created this story of the betrayed golden goose in Jataka Tales in my own version of the story. Original content may be different from my re-created story, so you are advised to visit the website in my bibliography for the original content of the story.