The Currency Of Stones

Give a man a fish to feed his family
and he will come back for more.
It is a gift or the beginning of a system of barter.
Sell the same man a loan to buy a rod
and he becomes the bait for you to fish
among his kith and kin for more needy people,
and he will have to keep on repaying his debt to you
long after he needs to.
Set the interest rate high enough and make it compound,
then you have got him by all his descendents,
by their balls, their purse, and later on
the land they can ill afford to live upon.
Jesus once, apparently misleadingly, asked*
'Which of you fathers would offer your son a stone
when he asks for bread? Or if he asks for a fish
offer him a snake instead?', referring not
to the goods concerned but the spiritual deafness
behind the misplaced gifts to the needy.
Anything that irreparably weighs down the heart
and mind is equal to, and is just as un/forgiving as,
a loan that is permanently unrepayable.


* The Gospel according to Luke Ch 11 Vs 11