Nutsy had a hundred nuts and a tingling feeling.
"Apples are cheap," he announced, to the square in general. "Apples are cheap, and I have noticed it before anybody else, and by tonight I shall own every apple in the Pond, and THEN there will be no more apples in town."
"At the other barrel," said Pip.
Nutsy was not listening.
He upended his whole bag into the nut barrel, all one hundred at once, and the nuts went in like heavy pouring rain, and he started hauling apples out with both arms.
"TWENTY," he shouted. "Twenty apples for twenty-five nuts. Did the market see that? Did everybody see what I just did."
"Thirteen," said Pip, as the next twenty-five went in.
"THIRTEEN MORE."
"It is thirteen for the same twenty-five."
"THIRTEEN MORE," said Nutsy, louder, as though volume were a kind of arithmetic.
By the fourth armful he was getting seven apples for twenty-five nuts and shouting about it just as hard. He stood in the middle of the square holding fifty apples, which he had counted as ninety-six, and did a small dance, and told a passing heron he was now rolling in fruit.
Bao watched all of it from the bread cart.
Then she walked over and bought twenty apples, and went away. She came back an hour later, when other animals had carried apples in and the barrel had filled again, and bought twenty-one more. She did that four times across the morning.
She finished the day with eighty-two apples.
They had started with exactly the same hundred nuts.
Nutsy was still going at sundown.
"Count them," said Bao.
"I have counted them."
"Count them out loud, and I will wait."
Nutsy counted out loud. It took a while. He started again twice. At the end of it he was holding fifty apples and a very strange expression.
"It was ninety-six."
"It was never ninety-six. How many did you get for your first twenty-five nuts?"
"Twenty," said Pip, from the barrel.
"And the last twenty-five?"
"Seven."
Nutsy went completely still, which for Nutsy was practically a medical emergency.
"I paid the same for seven as I paid for twenty."
"You did."
"Who did that to me?"
"You did," said Pip. "There were only so many apples in that barrel. Every apple you took made the next one dearer. You were not bidding against the market. By the end you were bidding against yourself."
"Why didn’t anyone SAY ANYTHING"
"I said it four times. You shouted THIRTEEN MORE at me."
Bao put her eighty-two apples on the ground next to his fifty.
Nutsy looked at the two piles for a long moment.
"How."
"I went four times instead of once," said Bao. "Other animals brought apples in while I was waiting. The barrel filled up again in between."
"You waited."
"I waited."
Nutsy spent the rest of the evening telling the market that he had invented waiting.
Margin Note: The bigger your scoop, the worse your last spoonful.
The Honest Bit: This is slippage. There are only so many apples in the barrel, and every one you take out makes the next one dearer, so a big order ends up bidding against itself. On a real swap you can see this happen before you agree to anything. Type in a small amount and look at the rate, then type in a large one and look again. Nutsy could have seen it too. He was shouting.
The Question of the Day: Nutsy and Bao started with the same hundred nuts, and Bao finished thirty-two apples ahead. Nobody cheated anybody and the board never changed. Say what Bao did that Nutsy did not, and why it worked.
Try It: Open a swap on PancakeSwap. Type in a small amount and read the rate. Type in a very large one and read it again. Confirm nothing.
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