secrets of the Persian carpet seller #2

More insider secrets from Fat Frank: "The toughest tactic to come up against is the tactic of a bazaari. The oldest dealer in town was a Persian Bazaari immigrant, a cunning man. He had enjoyed his business for thirty years. One day he started mongering a rumour that Frank was bankrupt. Initially I felt upset that he was doing this. Then I recieved a query from an overseas supplier about this. I understood that the game had got far too serious. The supplier gave me six months to settle my credit. I met with him, an Afghan from whom I got Afghan rugs. He greeted me with a worried look on his face. I offered the Afghan guy Iranian goods at an exorbitant price and he took the offer. The account was settled. Then another overseas company became really worried. So I changed tack. This time I pretended to agree I was ‘in trouble’ and said that someone in the market was willing to buy my debt at fifty percent. Because they believed the rumour they thought fifty percent was a great deal from a bankrupt man. They eagerly fell for it and the account was settled for fifty percent of the amount. Who needs friends when there are enemies like this? I sent a big bunch of flowers to the rumour mongerer and explained that he has done me well even though he did not mean it. Everyone in the market knew that I had a better Bazaari technique than him."