Monoar Haji is a proprietor of a tea stall in Shantirhat. He realizes that virtually all of his customers are poor and, as such, can hardly afford to pay their bills.
To solve this problem, he comes up with a new marketing plan that allows his customers to drink now, but pay later. He keeps track of the cups of tea taken in a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around about Monoar Haji's "Take now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Monoar Haji's tea stall. Soon he has the largest sales volume for any tea stall in Shantirhat.
By providing his customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Monoar Haji gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, he substantially increases his price. Consequently, Monoar Haji's gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic Vice President at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets, and increases Monoar Haji's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the customers.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into RONGCHABONDS, DUDHCHABONDS and ADACHABONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded in security markets.
Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of poor tea-takers. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.
One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Monoar Haji's tea stall. He so informs Monoar Haji. Monoar Haji then demands payment from the customers. But most of the customers still being unable to keep body and soul together cannot pay...