The Generous and the Greedy

A marketplace had generous merchants and greedy ones. Generous merchants gave fair deals, building loyalty. Greedy merchants squeezed every customer for maximum profit.

When the market was full of generous merchants, a single greedy one exploited trusting customers and thrived. So greed spread. But as greed became common, customers grew wary. They tested merchants, avoided the greedy, and sought out the remaining generous ones.

Generosity became valuable again. It spread. Then greed re-invaded.

The market never settled on one strategy. It oscillated around a balance where both types persisted — a stable mix determined not by morality, but by the mathematics of relative advantage.