German Bailout for Greece - therein lies a tale

Some one sent this to me on the email. Couldn’t resist placing it on the blog, especially when I hear/read that Govt does not have funds to pay OROP or paying OROP is the first step to Greece-like situation, never mind that Rs 62398.6 crore or Rs 559,000 crore Revenue foregone as incentives and/or tax exemptions to corporates!

As the issues in the European Union continue I came across this humorous explanation of how the Greek bail-out really works and the role the Germans have to play.

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village.

Unusually for this time of year, the rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, and stops at the local hotel. He approaches the reception desk and lays a 100 Euro note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some room keys and tells him to take a look at the rooms and decide which one is most suitable.

The German tourist makes his way upstairs and as soon as he has gone upstairs, the hotelier grabs the 100 Euro note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher then takes the 100 Euro note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the 100 Euro note and heads off to pay his bill to the Farmers Co-operative who supplies the pig farmer with his animal feed.

The man at the Farmers’ Co-operative immediately takes the 100 Euro note and runs down the street to the local taverna to pay his outstanding drinks bill.

The owner of the taverna slips the money along the counter to the local prostitute, who is drinking at the bar. For several weeks now she has been offering her ‘services’ to him on credit. The prostitute then rushes down to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the 100 Euro note.

The hotel owner then places the 100 Euro note back down on the counter.

At that very moment the German tourist comes back down the stairs, says that the rooms are not satisfactory and he has decided not to stay the night.

At that, he picks up the 100 Euro note, puts the money back in his wallet, and walks out of the hotel, gets into his car and drives off.

And so no one produced anything. And no one earned anything.

However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism (achhe din in India!).

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how Greek bail out works.