Management Aptitude Test Dec 2019 Paper

PASSAGE -5 Once upon a time there was an enterprising Scottish actor, called Arthur Furguson, who discovered that he could make a very good living selling things that didn't actually belong to him, in other words he was a common man. He first got the idea when he was sitting in the middle of Trafalgar Square (in London that is). This was in 1923, and he saw an American tourist admiring the stone lions and the fountains and Nelson's Column. He introduced himself as the 'official guide' to the Square and started to explain the history of the place. And while he was doing this he also slipped in a little mention that as Britain was heavily in debt, the British government was looking for the right kind of person to buy the Square. He said that he was the official government salesman and that the asking price was around £6,000. The American said that this was a good price and offered to pay by cheque right away, so Mr Furguson went off to okay this with his superiors-in other words he went off for an hour and a half and kept the American waiting. Well, he then came back and said, yes, they were willing to sell to the American at that price. The American wrote a cheque and Furguson gave him a receipt and the address of a company which would dismantle the Square and get it ready for shipping it to the States. Then he went off to cash the cheque.
Soon after that he sold Big Ben for £1,000 and took a down payment on Buckingham Palace of £2,000. Two years later he went to the United States and leased the White House to a Texas cattleman for 99 years for $100,000 per annum. Later he arranged to sell the Statue of Liberty to an Australian for $100,000, but unfortunately Furguson allowed the buyer to take a photograph of him and the Australian, feeling slightly suspicious, showed the photograph to the police. Furguson was identified and sent to prison for fraud for five years. When he came out he retired to California, where he lived in luxury until he died in 1938.