recently we discussed the Indian economic comic “The Dhobi’s Donkey”. while simplistic, the comic had surprising economic depths. Specifically, I was thinking about how the farmers ended the comic by killing the Dhobi’s donkey.
We could spend time discussing how the Dhobi could have gone about preventing the death of his donkey (like not stealing in the first place), but I’m more interested in how the farmers solved the situation.
The farmers had decided to kill the donkey. Now, maybe they weren’t the smartest, but if I found a donkey dressed as a tiger I would assume that it was owned by someone or at least put there by someone. Personally I would have kept the donkey until it’s owner arrived. That way I could have demanded recompense from the owner or even taken them to court. The lack of authories in the comic may indicate that there wasn’t enough legal authority in the farmers area to gain anything taking this Dhobi to court, but I’m curious as to how different people would respond to this situation. I’m not the most economically inclined so maybe taking the Dhobi to court would lead to more losses than gains. I’d like to hear how you would act in if you were ever in a similar situation to these farmers. I think it could be a fun discussion.