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The Price Maker Long ago and far away， their was a king who ruled in Benares， in northern India. One of his ministers was called the Royal Price Maker， and he was a very honestman. His job was to set a fair price for anything the king wanted to buy or sell. On some occasions， the king did not like his price making. He did not get as big a profit as he wanted. He did not want to pay so much when he bought， or sell for what he thought was not enough. So he decided to change the price maker. One day he saw a nice looking young man and hethought， This fellow will be good for my price making position. So he dismissed his former honest price maker，and appointed this man to be the new one. The man thought， I must make the king happy by buying at very low prices and selling at very high prices. So he made the prices ridiculous， without caring at all what anything was worth. This gained the greedy king a lot of money， and made him very happy， Meanwhile， all the others who dealt with the new price maker， including the kings other ministers and ordinary people， became very unhappy. Then one day a horse merchant arrived in Benareswith 500 horses to sell. There were stallions， mares and colts. The king invited the merchant to the palace， andcalled upon his Royal Price Maker to set a price for all 500 horses. Thinking only of pleasing the king， he said， The entire herd of horses is worth one cup of rice. So the king ordered that one cup of rice be paid to the horse dealer， and all the horses were taken to the royal stables. | 
