Discovering Business at an Early Age

By Susan Okle

A few days ago a good friend gave me a box filled with bags of school supplies and asked me to distribute them amongst the kids in my neighborhood. So I did; and I told the ones who came to my house to bring their friends, too. Every few minutes there was a knock on my front door and a child asking for a bag of school supplies. I soon learned to tell them that I can’t give them five bags for all their sisters and brothers, but that they’re all welcome to receive one. I also had to tell them that five month old babies don’t really need school supplies when they turned up with their baby sisters and brothers.

But what really amazed me was the following incident. One boy, about 13 years old, escorted a little girl to my house so she could also get a bag of school supplies. Soon after she received it, she discreetly handed him something that was held tightly in her hand.

When she left I asked the boy what she gave him, but he didn’t want to tell me. I insisted, and finally he opened his hand. It was a 500 Rupiah coin! Suspicious, I asked him what the money was for. He explained that earlier he gave the little girl some marbles and that the money was his payment for them. Nice try! I told him straight away what I suspected: that he could show her the “bulé-house” where she could get school supplies for free, but she had to pay him for the information. He denied it, but the other neighborhood kids confirmed my theory. And by the guilty look on his face, I knew I was right.

What can I say? You have to start early to learn the rules of making business…