WALKING DOWN THE GARDEN PATH

‘A fool and his money are soon parted”- so goes an old adage. In this drama of fool-parting-with-his-money, there are two protagonists: A con-artist and a gullible victim or the bakra. The modus operandi of the con-man has remained unchanged for centuries; only the tools of the con-game have changed.
‘You have been chosen for the ‘Beacon of Mankind” award by us for your achievements” said a communication from abroad to me. It was, as per the missive, for my significant contribution to the social reforms, which was news to me. The only catch was that I had to remit $200 to an address in New York as the ‘processing fee”. I was not about to loosen my purse-strings and that was that.
There are any number of ‘schemes” that the conmen hatch. Like the ‘Chain-marketing”, ‘Money Doubling” and even the promise of alchemy (turning ordinary metals into gold) which always find willing sacrificial lambs.
A carefully planned mischievous ‘tip” in the stock market circles invariably finds unsuspecting rookies falling prey in droves. When one batch of lambs gets slaughtered a fresh crop appears to take its place.
A bloke once wrote a book titled ‘108 Surefire Ways Of Making Money” or some such crap and the copies were sold before you could say ‘Dollar or Rupee”. While the readers raked their brains about the ‘surefire ways”, the author laughed all the way to the bank.
What makes a conman tick or a bakra lick? It could be any bodies guess. But surely the ignorance and/or unadulterated greed of the potential victim besides the hypnotic charm of the con artist are crucial ingredients of every con saga.
If any one knows better, please enlighten me.