While walking in a park, one morning, I found a Hundred Rupee note on one of the park benches. I picked it up, noted the number and took it home.

In the afternoon the plumber called on me to collect his bill. As I had no other moey at home, I settled his account with the Hundred Rupee note that I had found.

Later I came to know that the plumber paid the note to his milkman to settle his monthly account , who paid it to his tailor for the garments he had made.

The tailor in turn used the money to buy an old sewing machine, from a woman who lives in my neighbourhood. This woman incidentally, had borrowed Hundred Rupees from me sometime back to buy some household appliance. She, remembering that she owed me a Hundred Rupees, came and paid the debt.

I recognized the note as the one that I had found on the park bench, and on careful examination, I discovered that the note was counterfeit.

How much was lost in the whole transaction and by whom ?

If you want to expand the scenario to include the counterfeiter, then why not also include society as a whole (losers because of the intrinsic cost of illegal activities), but I'd argue that the counterfeiter gained in that his or her illegal pursuits are now less likely to lead directly to his/her arrest.

Money, as a stand-in for an old fashioned barter system leads each person to have exchanged worth for worth. This was a sum zero (no net gain or loss) when the original "lucky" fellow discovered that he really hadn't gained anything, except the utility derived from being able to pay the plumber on time.

Posted by whome? on 2005-01-02 20:27:28