A Fairy Tale Comes True.............

Once upon a time........... in Kingdom not so far away, lived a Doughnut Maker and his family.The Doughnut Maker would get up at 2 AM every morning and go to his doughnut shop where he would start mixing the batter to make wonderful fresh doughnuts for his morning customers. He was a very hard working Doughnut Maker who took great pride in his work. He used only the finest ingredients including farm fresh eggs and the best sweet cream butter.

Over the years his business grew and grew and he opened another doughnut shop and then another. His doughnuts were known far and wide as the best doughnuts in the Kingdom. The Doughnut Maker was happy and satisfied. Why, he was so successful that he was able to purchase a new castle for his family, and even send his son to a fine school in a far away kingdom.

At Cambridge University his son studied business in the hope of helping his father expand even more and franchise his doughnut shops in other far away Kingdoms.

One summer, his son came home from Cambridge. The young man watched his father get up 2 AM every morning and go to his doughnut shop to make his wonderful fresh doughnuts; the best in the Kingdom.

One afternoon he had a talk with his Father.

“Father,” he said, “I have been looking at your records and I see that you are spending an awful lot of shillings for advertising.”

“Haven’t you heard?”

“The economy is in horrible shape, businesses are closing every day and people are losing their jobs. Without jobs people are losing their homes. You should probably cut your expenses by trimming your advertising budget.”

The Doughnut Maker had not even graduated from grammar school and his son was attending Cambridge University, so he listened intently to his educated son and cut his advertising budget.

His son must have been right; the economy must be in horrible shape because his sales started to decline.

A few days later his son spoke with him again.

“Father, I have been looking at your records and I see that you spend a lot of shillings for farm fresh eggs and the best sweet cream butter.”

“Haven’t you heard?”

“The economy is in horrible shape, businesses are closing every day and people are losing their jobs. Without jobs people are losing their homes. You should probably cut your expenses by using dehydrated eggs and vegetable shortening instead of farm fresh eggs and the best sweet cream butter.”

The Doughnut Maker had not even graduated from grammar school and his son was attending Cambridge University, so he listened intently to his educated son and started using dehydrated eggs and vegetable shortening.

His son must have been right; the economy must be in horrible shape because his business declined even more.

A couple of days later, his son spoke with him again.“Father, I’ve been looking at your records. You spend an awful lot of shillings on payroll.

"Haven’t you heard?"

"The economy is in horrible shape.

Even our new King says things are bad and he is warning his subjects that things are going to get worse.

With the decline in your business, perhaps you should consider cutting your payroll.”

The Doughnut Maker had not even graduated from grammar school and his son was attending Cambridge University, so he listened intently to his educated son and he lay off some of his employees.

Over the course of the next several months, the Doughnut Maker’s business got worse and worse. He started closing his shops and finally had to declare bankruptcy. He could no longer pay his mortgage payments and the Kingdom's Treasurer foreclosed on his castle.

After moving into a small hut, the Doughnut Maker finally had time to reflect on his life over the last year or so. He was thankful that he had such an intelligent son (educated at Cambridge) who advised him how to react to the horrible economy.

No, the Doughnut Maker did not live happily ever after.

The End……