Snake Oil

Lobh is the thief that arrives with a product. The English on the door is snake oil, because the product is not the lever. The promise is.

The tale

Guru Nanak at Saidpur is told as a sakhi, and we label it that way. A powerful official holds a feast. A carpenter has given the Guru plain bread. In one hand the Guru holds the bread and in the other the feast, and squeezes. The tradition says milk came from the first and blood from the second. The point is not that the feast is poisoned. It is that wealth taken from others carries what was taken, and honest labor carries none.

The question of the counterfeit is the next tale. At Bakala, in tradition, twenty-two claimants set up as the Guru, and a trader exposed them by a small test. We label this one contested: the numbers and dates vary, and the earliest source we read is from the nineteenth century. What survives is the method of the test: a small offering, and a watch on what the claimant does with it.

The Indic fable is the Blue Jackal. The jackal is made king by his color and brought down by his voice.

The modern court

The courtier of lobh sells you an outcome you cannot check.

• The course. A transformation sold by someone whose income is the course.
• The get-rich scheme. A return promised and a testimony offered. The proof is the screenshot.
• The partner with the angle. A deal that is generous in everything but the terms.
• The extractive “opportunity.” You supply the work, the capital or the audience, and the other side keeps the door.

For the solopreneur this is the chapter that matters most, because the solopreneur is the buyer for all of it. There is no manager, no procurement office, and no colleague to say “have you checked this?”

The diagnosis

The thief enters by the gap between what is promised and what can be verified. Greed is not the desire to be paid. It is the willingness to pay for a result you cannot inspect, because the result is something you want very much.

The Blue Jackal shows the same weakness on the seller’s side: the costume holds until the voice speaks. Look for the moment the pitch meets something familiar.

The minister’s counsel

Kirat is the moat. Honest, independent income cannot be bought back from you. A patron cannot withdraw what he did not give. The minister’s first question to any offer is what it does to your independence.

Give the small coin. The test at Bakala is the model. Offer something small, and watch what is done with it. A real counterpart treats a small thing carefully. A counterfeit pockets it and waits for the bigger one.

Ask for what can be checked. If the proof is testimony, ask for something you can inspect yourself. If you cannot, the price should reflect that you are trusting.

Wait for the howl. The Blue Jackal gives himself away when something familiar sounds nearby. Put a person from the real world into the room: someone who knows the field and has no stake in your yes.

Three questions

1. What exactly am I buying, and what can I inspect myself?
2. If this fails, who carries the loss?
3. Whose labor is in the feast?