:moneybag: Antiques dealing can be profitable if you find valuable items for a good price.
:books: Roald Dahl's story 'Parson's Pleasure' is about an antiques dealer who tricks people to find valuable antiques.
:thinking: The story raises questions about why someone would pretend to be a clergyman and the connection to the antiques trade.
🗝️ A man disguises himself as a clergyman to visit isolated country homes and find valuable furniture.
💼 He finds a dilapidated chest of drawers that turns out to be a rare and valuable piece.
🔍 The man negotiates with the farmhouse owner to buy only the legs of the chest, revealing his true intention to deceive.
💼 Bogus is a successful antiques dealer who tricks people to buy valuable antique items at low prices.
🏛️ Bogus pretends to work for a prestigious museum and adopts a false identity as a pastor to gain access to people's homes.
💥 Bogus discovers a rare and valuable Chippendale commode but the owners mistakenly destroy it, leaving his reaction unknown.
💰 The story discusses the dangers of greed and fraud, emphasizing the consequences of dishonesty and selfishness.
🏺 Bogus's excessive greed leads to the destruction of valuable antique furniture, causing him to miss out on a great opportunity and carry guilt for the rest of his life.
🕵️ Bogus's deception and cunning tricks eventually backfire on him, highlighting the limits of his cleverness.
Bogus discovers valuable chairs in a farmhouse.
He bargains with the owner and gets them for a low price.
Bogus comes up with a plan to search for more valuable items in country homes.
🔑 The Chippendale commodes are highly coveted examples of 18th-century English furniture.
💼 Bogus initially pretends to be uninterested in the commode, but secretly desires the legs for his own table.
💰 The discovery of a genuine bill of sale increases the value of the commode, potentially worth thousands of pounds.
📝 Bogus offers an unbelievably low price of 10 pounds for the commode, which is worth 300 pounds.
💼 Bogus successfully negotiates with Romans and buys the commode for 20 pounds.
🪑 Romans and Claude dismantle the commode, leaving Bogus with only the legs.