Bad Deals
A Short Story about the cost of not knowing what you truly have to give.
Once upon a time,
there was a little old man who made very bad deals.
But this man didn’t start as a bad deal maker.
He started as an innocent boy—who someone cursed by making a bad deal with.
One day, he was walking through a forest when a stranger appeared and said,
“I have gold. I’ll give it to you if you give me your foot.”
Being young and not realizing how easeful life would be later if he had both feet, the trusting boy assumed that everyone was like his parents, and that the stranger knew better than him and was looking out for his best interest… so he said,
“Ok, I’ll give you my foot for that gold.”
The boy got the gold.
But he had a very hard time carrying it, because now he only had one foot.
And now he had all this gold to guard.
Life changed after that exchange. It was hard on the rest of his body to only walk with one foot. He never felt stable. And he would never know the feeling of having two feet on the ground ever again.
But he got by. When he was older, he met a woman he took a fancy to.
“Give me your gold, and I’ll give you my body,” she said.
“Well, this will be a great deal!” he thought to himself.
The gold was too heavy to carry alone, and he wanted to touch, feel, and know this woman’s body. And some part of him assumed… if she offered… it must be a good deal.
And so he gave her the gold.
And she gave him her body.
But there was no soul and no love for him in her body,
so when he entered her,
his soul and his heart went cold.
You know how this story goes.
This once innocent boy kept believing in the people he made deals with.
Kept assuming that anyone who offered to make a deal would have everyone’s best interest at heart.
But this was not so.
One bad deal after another kept happening.
Step by step, one bad choice without malice after another…
and all of his good was gone.
He would discover that what seemed like a small choice in the moment
resulted in having to live in the long wake of the consequence of that choice.
His life was filled with the consequences of too many bad deals.
Even when he financially benefitted from a bad deal, something bad would happen—
making it so he needed more money,
leading him to feel forced into another bad deal
just to stay ahead of the next bad thing sure to come.
His was a soul that was never met by another.
He lived with the ache of one foot.
He had no gold.
But he knew how to make a deal.
So that’s what he did.
He became quite skilled at recognizing people who didn’t know how to make good deals—
because he saw that old part of himself in them.
And so he became the one who helped these people who didn’t know the worth of their life to make very, very bad deals.
All was lost.
No friends who liked him.
No family who loved him.
All he had was how to make bad deals.
Each time thinking: this will be the one that gets me ahead.
Each time ending more behind than before.
Until he died in a very bad mood
and very bad debt.
One of his neighbors took pity on him.
She brought him warm biscuits with butter and meat during the holidays.
He was always gruff, suspicious, and secretly more grateful than he could ever show.
Her name was Nancy.
She had grown up in the house beside him,
and had witnessed what had once been a very kind man’s fall from grace.
You see—she was the daughter the man never knew belonged to him.
Her mother, upon discovering she was pregnant and unable to bear the risk of love,
left the man.
She had the child two towns over.
And when the daughter was old enough,
she told her of an old house next door to her father’s—
one no one would notice if she moved into.
Nancy did just that.
Her mother warned her:
“There is no love left in him to give you. I took it with me.
But he won’t harm you. He’ll be a good enough neighbor.”
So even the gift of a daughter was taken from him.
Nancy would never become part of his story,
but she knew it—and told it to her own son, Jacob,
so he would never make the same mistakes.
Jacob grew up in the wake of that story.
He grew up eating that story when there wasn’t enough food to eat.
His family told stories to nourish the soul when there wasn’t enough to nourish the body.
Then, sad things happened.
His father died.
The roof began to leak.
His mother got sick from the damp.
Jacob didn’t know what to do.
So he went to the forest, crying and pleading with Life to help him.
He had no money, an empty stomach, and all would be lost if his mother died.
A man appeared out of nowhere and offered him a bag of gold.
“You’ll give me the gold?” Jacob asked, thinking it was a miracle.
“Give me your foot, and I’ll give you this gold,” the stranger said.
Jacob considered the offer.
He looked at this big, strong man.
He remembered the stories.
And saw that the man had something more valuable than gold.
“How about I give you dinner,
and you use your big strong hands to fix our leaking roof?”
The stranger only knew the language of tit-for-tat, desperate pleas, unfair deals.
“No,” he said, and slunk back into the woods.
But he left the boy feeling oddly emboldened—
realizing he had just escaped the curse that had entrapped his grandfather.
Jacob went to town and looked for the strongest, happiest-looking man he could find.
He told him his story.
“What do you have to give me if I give you my time, skill, and labor?” the man asked.
“I have nothing,” Jacob said.
A story he had inherited. A lie that had become true in his bones.
But the man looked him up and down and said:
“You lie like a dog!
You have health! Feet that walk. Hands that build. A mother who loves you
(I can tell by the way your shirt is darned).
You have everything money can’t buy!”
The boy liked this man. He wanted to give generously. Break the curse.
“I’ll make you 3 meals a day for 6 months if you fix our roof this weekend.”
But the man pulled out a notebook.
“Let’s do the math.”
And he showed him—through shapes and numbers—
how overgiving would only lead to lack.
“That curse of thinking you have nothing to give keeps you giving everything
until you truly have nothing.”
They came up with a fine deal:
1 meal a day when he was working, and one Sunday dinner a month for 3 months.
Time passed.
Jacob learned how to make win-win deals.
He learned: good deals take time.
And sometimes, a deal needs to change to make it better.
Wouldn’t you know, Jacob’s mother and the young man took a liking to each other
and became beloved.
When Jacob grew older, the man helped him build a beautiful home.
He planted a fruitful garden with his neighbors.
And then one day, a beautiful woman knocked on his door.
He wanted to know her in all the ways.
But he could feel her hunger—not for him, but for what he had.
“I’ll give you my body for a roof and a meal,” she said.
But Jacob remembered.
“I know a bad deal when I see it.
But I have food to share, and an extra bed you can rest in.”
They became good friends.
Turns out, she had no skills in cleaning or cooking,
but she was very good at talking to the birds.
Soon, their home was blessed with birds who came from far and wide,
drawn to be sung to by her.
Word got out.
They created a small bird-talk business,
where people came to learn how to be with and listen to the birds.
Before they knew it, they had co-created an extraordinary alliance—
a very good deal where all beings, even the birds, thrived.
The woman had found a home where she could rest
and a friend who recognized her song-gift.
The man had welcomed wonder, awe, and good people into his home.
And the birds—long misunderstood—were now sought out
by those yearning to remember how to listen.
People came from near and far,
offering gifts in many forms
for the chance to learn, to honor, and receive the birds’ song.
And then one day, a young woman came to meet the birds.
She saw how the man moved through the world—
how everything he touched grew kinder, gentler, more alive.
She approached him.
She did not ask.
She did not offer.
She did not barter or demand.
She simply stood beside him,
sharing the goodwill of a good life.
Of course he felt it.
There were no deals made.
Just love shared.
Beautiful feather art by Chris Maynard
Hello dear reader, I don’t know about you— but I love hearing the back story of how a story comes to life. And in this case— you guessed it— I found myself in a situation where I kept making bad deals, over compensating, and in a continual cycle of lack that wouldn’t go away. So I went to the story to offer up some insight and medicine — and this is what came alive.
I would love to hear what happened for you while reading this story.
On Sunday, July 24th, I’ll be hosting a story council about this story, where you will be able to dive into and play with your own stories. This is a great way to shake up this topic so it can lessen its grip.
Paid subscribers receive a promo code for how to attend as my guest.
We’ll dive into the story and explore how it is living in you— your relationship to making deals and anything else that surfaced in your journey of receiving this story.
We’ll complete with a creative exercise where you can create and share your own mythic tale that explores a topic you are working with.
Sunday, June 24th
June 22nd: Free Intro Class for Story As Ceremony
June 24th: Story as Ceremony 6 Week Journey
June 29th: Bad Deals 2-Hour Playshop
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