Many years ago in Singapore, there were two good friends who went to school together. One's name was Fani—spelled F-A-N-I—but everyone called him "Funny." The other friend's name was Maninder—spelled M-A-N-I—but everyone called him "Mani." So together, they were known as "Funny and Mani."
They were best friends and always hung out together, but they had very different personalities. Mani was very hardworking. He always did his homework on time, worked hard, and never cheated. He wanted to do everything the correct way—even if a single comma was in the wrong place, he wasn't happy. He was diligent and obedient.
Funny, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He couldn't care less about his marks. He was irresponsible and just wanted to do all sorts of funny things. His parents had a lot of money, so he didn't worry much about his future. But Mani was ambitious; he wanted to grow up and become a very successful businessman.
They both graduated from college and started working. Funny wanted to earn a lot of money quickly. He said, "I will go and become super, super rich!"
Mani said, "I don't care so much about money. I just want to do good things, real things that I'm good at."
So Funny came up with all sorts of silly ideas to make money. He would lie and cheat. Then he had a "brilliant" idea: he would open an investment company.
He told people, "Give me one thousand dollars, and within six months, I will return one thousand one hundred dollars to you because I am a great investor."
At first, nobody believed him. But then he found two or three gullible people who gave him a thousand dollars each. So now he had three thousand dollars. But he didn't know how to make extra money from that because he wasn't doing any real work. So he just kept the money.
Then he borrowed three hundred dollars from someone else and used it to pay back the first three people, giving them one thousand one hundred each. They were very happy! They went and told everyone, "You know what? This Funny fellow really gives you more money back!"
So ten more people came and gave him a thousand dollars each. From that ten thousand dollars, he took some money to pay back the person he borrowed from. He kept doing this—taking money from new people to pay back the old people. He wasn't doing any real business; he was just rotating money. This is called a Ponzi scheme.
He was getting very rich because everyone thought he was a genius. He bought big buildings and cars.
Meanwhile, Mani was very serious. He said, "I am not going to do any of this."
He opened a company making computers. It took him five days and cost a thousand dollars to make one computer, which he sold for one thousand one hundred dollars. He worked hard, taking ten days just to make a hundred dollars profit.
Funny used to make fun of him. "Haha! You are so hardworking and responsible. Come and join me! See how easy I make money?"
But Mani said, "You are cheating people. One day, it will all fall through."
Funny laughed, "No, it won't! Human beings are greedy. They'll keep giving me money."
Then, one fine day, Covid happened.
Because of Covid, people lost their jobs and needed their money to buy food and things for their homes. Suddenly, nobody had extra money to give to Funny. And the people who had already given him money came back and asked for it.
But Funny didn't have their money anymore! He had spent it or used it to pay others. He couldn't pay them back. He tried to run away, but the police caught him. They realized he was doing no real business—he was just rotating people's money. That's called "Funny Money."
They put him in jail, and so many people lost their savings.
On the other hand, Mani had built his business slowly, one computer at a time. By now, he had ten shops in Singapore, employed a thousand people, and was making millions of dollars because he did it the slow, steady, and right way.
**Moral of the Story:** There is no easy money. You have to work hard, do the right things, and sell real products or services. If you try to fool people like Funny did, one day you will get caught, and all the money will disappear.
