How to Sell a Dead Horse for $500

by Ishan on September 21, 2009 · 31 comments

Tired of all that blogging stuff? This time, I have got an interesting story for you!

Once upon a time, there was a wise man. He decided to buy a horse so that travel would become easier for him.

He went to a farmer and offered to buy his only horse. The farmer agreed. The wise man paid $100 in advance and said that he would take the horse the next day.

The next day, when he returned, the farmer told him that the horse had died. The farmer had spent the $100 that the wise man had given him and said that he was unable to return it.

The wise man thought for a second and asked if he could take the dead horse. The farmer happily agreed.

After 3 days, the wise man returned to the village. The farmer came to him and asked what he did with the dead horse.

The wise man said, “I sold the horse for $500!”

The farmer was amazed. He asked, “How is it possible?”

The wise man explained, “I went to a nearby fair. There, I set up a small stand and offered the horse through a lottery. The ticket was only $5. One hundred and two people participated, and in the end, I gave the horse to the winner.”

“Didn’t anyone complain?” the farmer asked.

“Yes, the winner complained about this.”

“Then what did you do?”

“I gave him double his money ($10) back.”

Five Blogging and Marketing Tips that you can learn from this story:

  1. Be Imaginative. When writing, keep your imagination high. Think of new ways to entertain your readers and help them.
  2. Do Not Trust Everyone. Keep your eyes open. The wise man, at first, made a big mistake by paying $100. If he had not used his brain, his money would have been wasted.
  3. Low Prices May Boost Sales. If you ever decide to sell your own product, remember that low prices may boost sales. That’s how the wise man sold over 100 tickets.
  4. Cheap Products May End Up Being Crap. What did the winner get? A dead horse! In the same way, cheap products may not be useful at all. Example: All those $27 schemes that promise to make you rich.
  5. You Tell Me!: I am keeping this open. What tip did you learn from this story?

Disclaimer: In case any animal lovers are reading this, no horses were hurt for this post/image. In fact, the horse above is sleeping! :-)

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About Writer [Blogging With Success]About Author Hi, I am a young Blogger from India. I am very passionate about blogging and also co-founder of Blogging With Success. I write about general blogging tips and WordPress. You can read other posts by me here.If you need help, feel free to contact anytime!

{ 24 comments }

nathan March 16, 2011

this story inspired people’s doing the rigth decisions on their business.
even you have been cheated or scam, dont lose hope, find a way & use your talent to regain something you’ve loss.

nathan March 15, 2011

he’s really a wise man..
even the horse is dead, he manage to make some money for it.
and a good technique when the winner complains he jist double the money of it.

Regular Blog Tips April 20, 2010

Great story I must say :)
.-= Regular Blog Tips´s recent blog ..The Lazy Bloggers Post Generation Tool =-.

Regular Blog Tips April 20, 2010

Thank God the horse was just sleeping or PETA might have killed you and all your readers.
.-= Regular Blog Tips´s recent blog ..The Lazy Bloggers Post Generation Tool =-.

Dahab Offers December 29, 2009

very inspired story

thanks for the post

BloggingIdiots October 12, 2009

Nice story, but not everybody and everytime people can sell dead horse for $500. No replacement for hard work and smart work.

For new bloggers dont try for short cut all the time.

Sham October 10, 2009

That's a nice short! Being smart is the need of the hour :)

Monicarolevans October 1, 2009

This is a great story– something that my Econ professors would have loved!

James September 29, 2009

Dude, thats fraud. There never was a prize for that raffle. By all accounts, the guy should be thrown in jail.

Mike Piper September 24, 2009

Heh, he recreated the state lottery. Well done! :)

Mr. I September 27, 2009

Well, it was indeed a lottery! Just with a different prize(ever saw a dead horse as first prize in state lottery?) :-D

Ruchi September 23, 2009

Too good story and you used this story for blogging, that's more cool. Great post. :)

Mr. I September 27, 2009

Thanks for the compliment!

Matt - Zero 2 Hero September 23, 2009

Brilliant, coming to your page this morning and seeing "How to sell a dead horse" cracked me up. Good story too, love the picture. I think I need to start a raffle now….

Mr. I September 27, 2009

Glad that you liked the post. And best of luck for raffle! :-)

Alex @ Esculonsays September 23, 2009

I learned that maybe I should raffle off all the jewelry I sell, giving each customer a chance to win expensive jewelry for a minimal cost. Hmmmm….?

Mr. I September 27, 2009

Interesting!

Let me know how it works for you!

Nhoel September 22, 2009

NICE STORY, ILL REMEMBER THAT AND ILL TELL IT TO MY FUTURE GRANDSONS…smile

Mr. I September 27, 2009

Good to know that you found story useful. Let me know what your grandsons feel about it(when you tell them)! ;-)

Ades September 22, 2009

I learned that the man in the story cheated others in making $500. Moral of the story for me, don't follow him!

Mr. I September 22, 2009

On the flip side, he was a good businessman!
Anyway, interesting(and humorous) lesson!

P.S.- I am not that man! ;-)

Blake @ Props Blog I September 24, 2009

This reminds me of the a most on Shoemoney about a good business model. He gave the customer exactly what he claimed to give them, and since the winner wasn't happy he gave them his money back. The people involved in the lottery weren't cheated any more than people who participate in any form of lottery or gambling.

I like the idea of thinking outside the box. If you make your product easy to share and it doesn't take a ton of your time, then the low cost high volume model works well.

If the product is very hard to share and very time intensive, then the high volume model would be hard to make work.

April Gardenio September 21, 2009

Great story. I heard a variation of this one a few years back. I learned from the story that value is always in the eyes of the purchaser – when they weigh what they will receive for the value of their money. For some people, $5 is valued more than $100 by others – it all depends upon the life situation. For most of us, let's make offers commensurate to our target market's value proposition.

A friend of mine said that money is like rain – it is always falling down around you, you just have to learn how to catch it.

Mr. I September 21, 2009

You are right, value depends upon many factors. Different people may have different values for same thing.

Do you know the name of writer of story? I forgot it but giving credit is important!

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