Katlina and the Silly 10 Men

Katlina was a really smart girl. She was only 11 years old, but she was always trying to figure out new business ideas. She always wanted to do her own business.

But you know what? She needed $100 for this lovely dollhouse she wanted to buy. So she kept doing small, small things. And daddy said, "See, we live in such a nice place. There's a nice river right next to where we live, and people come there for a run. In the morning they go for a run, and what you can do is you can simply sell water. Fill the water from the tap here. Keep glasses, and when they come, you can fill the glasses with water and sell it for one dollar a glass. People will pay you one dollar for the glass of water."

So Katlina said, "Wow, that's a great idea!" So she set up a small table, put a nice tablecloth on it, and she put a big jug of water and some glasses. And she wrote a sign: "Cold Water - $1."

She was sitting there. Suddenly, she saw these 10 men coming. They were running, jogging, "Huf-puf, huf-puf." They looked very tired and thirsty. They came to her table and said, "Little girl, little girl, can we have some water?"

Katlina said, "Yes, sure! One dollar for one glass."

They said, "Okay, okay, we are very thirsty." So they all drank water. Glug, glug, glug. They drank one glass, two glasses... all 10 of them drank water.

Then they said, "Okay, we have to go now. We have to cross the river."

Katlina said, "Wait! You have to pay me!"

They said, "Oh, we forgot our wallets. We are running. Who carries a wallet when running? We don't have money."

Katlina said, "No, no, no! My daddy said I have to collect money. You have to give me $10."

They said, "We don't have money. But we promise, tomorrow when we come, we will give you double. We will give you $20."

Katlina thought, "Hmm, $20 is better than $10." She said, "Okay, fine. But you promise?"

"Promise!" they said. And they ran off towards the river.

Now, this river was not very deep, but it was wide. You had to walk through the water to cross it. The 10 men held hands and started walking across the river. Splash, splash, splash.

When they reached the other side, the leader said, "Hey, let's count and make sure everyone crossed safely. I hope nobody drowned."

So he started counting. He pointed at his friends: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine."

He stopped. "Oh my god! Only nine? Where is the tenth man? One of us has drowned!"

Everyone started crying. "Oh no! We lost a friend! Who is missing?"

Another man said, "Let me count." He counted: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine." He also counted only nine.

They all started wailing and crying. "We lost a brother! The river took him!"

Katlina was watching all this from her table. She started laughing. She realized what they were doing wrong. Do you know what they were doing wrong?

The man counting was forgetting to count himself! He was pointing at everyone else but forgetting to count himself.

Katlina shouted, "Hey! You silly men!"

They looked at her. "Why are you calling us silly? We lost a friend!"

Katlina said, "I can find your lost friend. I can bring him back with magic."

"Really?" they asked. "You can do magic?"

"Yes," said Katlina. "But it will cost you extra money. You have to pay me $10 for the water and $10 for the magic."

"We will pay anything! Just bring our friend back!"

Katlina walked over to them. She said, "Okay, stand in a line." They stood in a line.

She went to the first man and gave him a little whack on the head. *Thwack!* "One!" she counted. She went to the second man. *Thwack!* "Two!" She went down the line, whacking each one. *Thwack!* "Three!" *Thwack!* "Four!"

When she got to the last man—the one who had been counting—she gave him a really hard whack. *THWACK!* "Ten!"

"Ten!" they shouted. "We are ten! You found him! You found our lost friend!"

They were so happy. They hugged each other and danced. "This girl is a magician! She is amazing!"

The next day, they came back running. They gave Katlina $20 for the water and an extra $50 for the magic. Katlina made $70 that day!

She ran home to her daddy. "Daddy! Daddy! I made $70!"

Daddy said, "Wow! You sold 70 glasses of water?"

"No," said Katlina. "I sold 10 glasses of water and one whack of magic!"

And that is how Katlina started her business and bought her beautiful dollhouse.