I know of a few mis-sellers in the financial services who excel in mis-selling. Let us call them A, B and C. A is so used to mis-selling that when a ‘friend’ wanted to buy a DVD player, he was convincing her to get a lap top. This in spite of the fact that he neither understands or sells laptop.

However, A recently lost a couple of high end mobiles, spent a lot of money on his health – from dentistry to other illnesses etc. He kept wondering why this was happening to him.

I was reminded about a beautiful story. Once upon a time there was a milkman. He was honest and diligent. He had a few cows and he would sell the milk from the cows and earn Rs.200 a day. In the village that he lived this was a good income for him and he was reasonably well to do.

One day, a management consultant met him and gave him very sound advice. He said “Since you have such a nice reputation, you should add water to the milk and that will boost your income”. The milkman was thrilled with the advice and did so.

On the first day, his income doubled! Instead of earning Rs. 200, he earned Rs. 400 and was thrilled. On his way he had to cross a river every day. On this day he felt like having a swim. He removed his clothes and went for a swim.

A smart monkey saw his clothes and decided to take his shirt!

On coming out of the river he found the monkey sitting on a branch jutting out into the river. The milkman frantically waved out to the monkey. The monkey shook the shirt for some time and then threw down the shirt. The monkey’s shaking ensured that some money fell into the water. However, the milkman was releived to get his shirt and some of the money back.

He then counted the money. He had exactly Rs. 200 – his normal collection. He smiled to himself saying “Ha! water has collected its dues” – or as they say in Hindi – ‘Paani ka paisa paani me’.

I presume all the mis-sellers out there have got the story!