Long Legged Larry often liked to read books to children at the local library. He arrived one Saturday morning and sat in the big rocking chair while all the good little children gathered around to listen. Some sat with their parents or teachers. Some were dropped off and sat ready to listen to this weekend's reading of a children's book.

Larry, with his legs so long used his knees to prop up the book. He began to read the title out loud for all the children to hear.

Kuku and the Mismanaged Money

He began. He turned the page.

Once upon a time, in a village between rolling hills and quiet streams, lived a little dodo bird named Kuku. Kuku had bright feathers, a grumpy chirp, and a knack for getting into trouble.

One morning Uncle Joseph_Ligambi came to visit. "Kuku, my nephew." he started. "I'm giving you this shiny bag of $30,000,000 in coins to run your silly little writing competition that you've been dreaming about. I know that you will use it wisely and will not go to any dicing tables or use it on anything frivolous!"

Larry pauses to address the children: "Frivolous means silly or not needed." Larry continued.

Kuku's eyes sparkled in the sun as he took the bag of coins from Uncle Joe. "Thank you Uncle! I will only use this to run my writing competition, I swear!" and with that, Kuku was off into the morning to hatch a plan.

As Kuku set down the path from his nest to the town, he spotted some friends playing debtball. His favorite activity. "Come play with us Kuku!" called his best friend Tommy. Kuku stopped for a moment and remembered that he had to go run this writing competition, but debtball looked so fun! "Just for a few minutes" Kuku decided, and joined the game. When the game was over, Kuku was exhausted and parched.

"I'll just grab a quick drink real fast." He thought, and spent some coin on a large sparkling nectar.

After waving goodbye to his friend Tommy, he stumbled upon a shop with a shiny kite in the window. "Gee wiz that's a neat looking kite. Maybe I'll just go in and take a quick look." As soon as Kuku entered he was back out again with the kite. The bag of Uncle Joe's coins was feeling lighter and lighter.

"I have to make it to the streets to conduct this writing competition!" He thought to himself, feeling the bag on his hip.

As he wandered further toward town. he stumbled upon the dicing tables. He knew this money was for his writing competition but he couldn't resist just a game or two. "If I bet maybe I can double it, or triple it!" he thought to himself. "Then I'll have enough money for the writing competition and some extra trinkets and more sparkling nectar!"

Bet after bet, the shiny bag of Uncle Joe's $30,000,000 in coins became emptier and emptier.

"Maybe just one more bet" Kuku said as he laid the last $1,000,000 in coins on the table. The house had won again.

Dejected, Kuku headed back to his nest where Uncle Joe_Ligambi was reading the paper. "Oh hello again Nephew! Did you start your wonderful writing competition that everyone definitely for sure thought was going to happen and wasn't going to be another one of your scams?" He asked excitedly.

To: Joseph_Ligambi
From: Kuku
Sent: May 25, '24 00:03
Subject:

Hey man, could we refinance that $30m one?  Same terms etc, just hit a.snag

"No." Replied Uncle Joe. "Until you learn the value of a coin, or 30 million, or 78 million. You won't get another loan from me you fucking dodo." He replied.

Larry closed the book.

"The End" Larry said with a smile. The children clapped.

"We will see you next week, goodbye!"