The level of human greed knows no bounds!

As if the Touchwood scam was not enough to make people understand that all get rich quick schemes are founded on the greed of human beings and the ease at which supposedly well educated people can be conned on theoretically plausible and practically impossible proposals to siphon money from hardworking people to con artists.

It was under this that I was visited by a person representing a well known company in the business of selling Agarwood plants that provide the same oil that the “Walla Patta” does and once sold at Rs1,400 per plant they promise that the value of the essence they will harvest in 8 years would be at least Rs50,000 which is the guaranteed buyback value of the tree.

One must remember that if one can get more than that you can sell to anyone else! So the company does not even tie you to them in that respect. Now why would one do that? Simply because they make enough from the initial sale to make sense of their business model, where the plant when sold has only cost them Rs 400 and now with a minimum sale of 20 plants for a customer guarantee their Rs20K up front, quite a multiple on cost!

This is the reality. Many professionals are fooled by these stories, as they are only looking at rate of return. Not about how realistic it is that they will be able to keep a plant growing at the said rate of growth and have one available for harvesting after 8 years.

These are the realistic possibilities, firstly that the company will not exist in 8 years to honor the promise, as there is NO insurance against the Company not being able to buy back. Secondly, it is most unlikely that in this era where there is NO enforcement of the law, that one will be able to protect one’s trees from theft. After all when break ins are not solved when people rob from a house, how can they solve one where a tree is cut within 10 minutes outside your home, and taken away. I was told to install CCTV! What a joke, as no thief will be apprehended by the Police, and if I apprehend one, the Police will release them as they will have more connections with the Law than I do. I cannot insure against theft of my tree.

Until there is the rule of law, and be seen to be enforced equally from the first citizen down, there is NO value in such get rich schemes, in an era of thugs and criminals and commission agents, who are the rulers, hand in glove with the security forces. It is time that honest people realize that such schemes are just TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!