The Divided Inheritance

A father left exactly one hundred gold coins to be split between two sons. No more could be earned, no interest could accrue, no clever arrangement could produce a hundred and first coin. Whatever one son received, the other did not.

The elder son hired a persuasive advocate. The younger son hired a better one. Each spent ten coins on advocacy. Then twenty. Then thirty.

When the dust settled, the elder received fifty-five coins and the younger forty-five. But each had spent thirty on advocates. The elder netted twenty-five. The younger netted fifteen. Sixty coins had been consumed by the fight itself.

The inheritance was zero-sum. But the contest over it was negative-sum. The fixed pie didn’t grow — it shrank, eaten by the cost of fighting over the slices.