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Hell Money
I've always liked this joke.
Paddy O'Brien died and as is the Irish custom the mourners were throwing money into his coffin. The town miser, whom everyone despised, cried out "I loved Paddy O'Brien. Whatever anyone else puts into the coffin, I will double!" Thinking the miser a little bit drunk the townspeople took this as an opportunity to teach him a lesson. Gathering all their money they showered the coffin with $3012 in bills and coins, more than had ever before been given at a funeral. The miser then gathered the money, wrote a cheque for $6024 and threw that in.
The Chinese have a similar custom of burying the dead with money but like the miser they understand monetary economics (if not perhaps signalling theory). Big white guy explains in his interesting post on Chinese hell money.
Hat tip to Marcus at the Mises Economics Blog.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on June 19, 2007 at 07:10 AM in Economics, Travels | Permalink
Comments
If he threw in a check for $6024, and it was buried, then it was he who taught the townspeople a lesson in the difference between cash and checks.
Townspeople: -$3012
Paddy O'Brien: -$0.05 (appx. cost of a wasted check)
Posted by: Tony Vallencourt at Jun 19, 2007 11:04:00 AM
Whoops, hit "post" too early. Meant to add:
"Love it."
Posted by: Tony Vallencourt at Jun 19, 2007 11:05:05 AM
There is a similar joke involving an American lawyer.
Posted by: save_the_rustbelt at Jun 19, 2007 2:22:50 PM
I wrote an article - Does Inflation Happen in Hell? some time back. Not exactly an economics article - just a jab at the chinese having such huge values for their hell notes.
Posted by: Chewxy at Jun 19, 2007 2:53:45 PM
