[cvos]

Once upon a time in a small village a man appeared who announced to all the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. The villagers knew that the jungle held countless monkeys, easily caught. The man bought 2 thousand.

As the supply diminished, they become difficult to catch, and villagers returned to their farms. The man announced that he would pay $20. The villagers renewed their efforts and caught 1,000 more monkeys.

The supply quickly diminished, but before they returned to their farms the man increased his offer to $40 each. Monkeys became so rare that it was difficult to even see a monkey let alone catch it. But they caught 500.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $100 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy for the man. The man departed.

Then the assistant told the villagers, “Look at all these monkeys the man has in that big cage. I will sell them to you at $50 each. When the man comes back you can sell the monkey’s back to him for $100.”

The villagers gathered up all their saving to buy the monkeys. The assistant took their money. They never saw either the man or his assistant again.

[hayksaakian]

What is the origin of this story?

[grugq]

it is a variant of "the fiddle game", or "the glim dropper". They are standard conman tricks from back in the day. All work on the principle: "you can't con an honest man".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks