# Chicken-shit currency — Ajahn Chah's prediction

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-chah-chicken-shit-currency
- Themes: analogy, money, humour, Ajahn Chah
- Life situations: money anxiety, values

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Chah predicts future currency will be pellets of chicken shit — bosses earn the most shit, IMF becomes International Manure Fund, governments promise more shit — value is what we ascribe.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

prediction. He used to say that in the future people will run out of paper to make bank notes and they will run out of metal to make coins. And so in the future they will use something very very common for their currency. They will use little pellets of chicken shit. And you'll go to work and the end of the work you'll be given a big bag of chicken shit depending on how hard you work. And your bosses will earn the most shit. And you would go to the bank to deposit and and see how much chicken shit you've got in the bank. And the IMF will be the International Manure Fund

## Teaching point

Money is only as real as the story we agree to tell about dung.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Ajahn Chah predicted that one day we'd be paid in chicken droppings: bosses earning the most, banks hoarding it, governments promising more. Ajahn Brahm explains: money is paper and metal, worth only what we agree. So what's really valuable in your life? Think outside the box and value different things.

## Source

- [Not Blaming Others | Ajahn Brahm | 15 November 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0U4jfovcOM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 25:39 to 26:36: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0U4jfovcOM&t=1539s