You've probably read the story about how a tourist solves the debt problem of a small town in Kenya just by placing a $100 note on a hotel's reception counter and taking it back a while later. It may have baffled you, since even though no one earns anything, everyone's debt is paid for. Well, there is no trick, so let's just demystify the puzzling story once and for all.
The story goes like this:
One day a tourist comes to the only hotel in a debt ridden town in Kenya. He lays a 100 dollar note on the table & goes to inspect the rooms.
Hotel owner takes the note & rushes to pay his debt to the butcher. Butcher runs to pay the Pig Farmer. Pig Farmer runs to pay the Feed Supplier. Supplier runs to pay the Prostitute, who in these hard times gave her services on credit. Prostitute then runs to pay off her debt to the Hotel Owner for the rooms she rented for her clients.
Hotel Owner then lays the 100 dollar note back on the counter. The tourist comes down, takes his money & leaves as he did not like the rooms.
No one earned anything. But the town is now without debt & looks to the future with a lot of optimism.
And that is how the world is doing business today!