Selling Combs To A Bald Monk

In China, a while in the past carried on with an exceptionally fruitful finance manager whose business was to sell brushes. The businessman had reached retirement age. He wanted to hand over his business to capable and shrewd hands before he retired, and he had three sons. He called his sons and assigned them the task of selling combs.

The businessman gave them instructions to sell combs in the Buddhist monastery and gave them three days to complete the assignment and return it to him.

His sons were shocked and perplexed because the monks who lived in the monastery never grew hair, but all three took the job given to them.

After three days, the first son informed his father that he could only sell two combs.

His father asked, “How did you manage to persuade them to purchase those combs?”

“I said, yes, of course, they can use those combs for scratching their backs to ease their itching,” the first son replied.

After some time, the second son showed up and said he had sold ten combs.

The same question was posed to him by his father: “What did you say to them??”

The second son responded, “I advised them to buy combs and keep them in the monastery because their visitors and pilgrims’ hairs might be ruffled on the way.”

A few minutes later, the third son showed up and said he had sold a thousand combs. Everyone was shocked to learn of this startling number of a thousand combs.

Father was curious and pleased with the outcome. “Son, you did a wonderful job,” he asked him. How did you manage to sell 1,000 combs?”

“I went to the monk and gave them an idea,” the third son replied.

The plan was to print or emboss some of the Buddha’s teachings on the comb and give them to visitors and pilgrims as souvenirs. They will recall the lessons of Buddha consistently while
brushing their hair.

Moral of Selling Combs To A Bald Monk Story

Thinking creatively and outside the box can lead to unexpected success in business.