The price is right

Titius rushed toward the agora. He had to reach there today, or it would be a waste of time. His father, Hermogenes, had asked for a few slaves, and he had to go and do the needful. His father was a good man, he knew, even if a bit stingy on the money.

As he neared the marketplace, he got ready for an onslaught on his senses. He hardly left the agora without a few things he didn't need. He saw shimmering fabric, which his father had warned him against, but then, that was what all his friends were wearing. Surely, he could bargain and get a good slave even after purchasing just a little bit of silk?

He walked towards the store, and when he was done (or rather, when the trader was done) he had way too much cloth. And now he started to panic. He didn't have enough for one slave, let alone two that his father had ordered.

"Slaves! Slaves! Cheapest of the cheap" he heard someone shout, and went over. How much? 400 drachmas only! He counted his coins--he had 300.

He approached the seller and said, 300 for two. The man looked at him as if he were uttering blasphemy. "No way! I am already the cheapest in the whole area."

Titius didn't quite know how to proceed. "What about those men there?" he asked, pointing to a group who looked mean and lean. And missing a limb or two.

"They?" the trader asked with scorn, "They are missing this or that. Although perfectly healthy," he added.

He racked his brains to remember what his father had wanted them for. Not for anything important, he knew. They were just replacements for the old man who had passed on recently. So any old slave should do, he reasoned.

"Alright--give three for 300," Titius said with a tone that suggested finality.

The trader thought, and acted as if it were a grave matter, and agreed.

It was thus that Titius went home with three men--with a total of six limbs and five eyes between them.

When he went home, his father, whose eyes flared up in anger, looked at his stupid son and said, "My son, the cost, whatever you thought you had saved, is for the arms and legs."

"But, 300 drachmas for an arm and a leg? Way too much, dad!" he said.

"Yes, my son," said Hermogenes, trying his best not to shout at his son. "Slaves do cost an arm and a leg."