note conversion ~fake notes - alchemy and the dupers !!

‘gullible’- adjective :  easily persuaded to believe something; credulous.  Gullibility is a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into an ill-advised course of action. 

An old legend tells of a fortune in gold hidden in the "Cañon del Oro," guarded by the Apache spirits. Along with several others, a man named Adams found it when he was a young man, only to have the Indians capture and blind him, leaving him stranded in the desert after killing his companions. Years later, Marshal MacKenna  wounds an old Indian shaman named Prairie Dog who tried to bushwhack him; Prairie Dog subsequently dies, despite MacKenna's attending to him. MacKenna thereby comes into possession of a map that supposedly shows the way to the treasure. Though skeptical, he memorizes the directions before burning the map.

~that is the storyline of ‘Mackenna's Gold’ the great film of 1969, directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif  with original music by Quincy Jones. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Heck Allen using the penname Will Henry, telling the story of how the lure of gold corrupts a diverse group of people.   The quest for gold – the lure of the yellow metal and people doing everything to acquire need not be elaborated as for centuries mankind have spent their lives on a relentless quest for gold.

It is not only the search for ‘hidden treasure’ – but various other unproven ways of making it.  Heard lf ‘Rasavatham’ [alchemy !] – the possibility of  transmutation of common metals into gold  which actually is known as chrysopoeia.  In alchemy, the term chrysopoeia means transmutation into gold.  The word was used in the title of an alchemical textbook, the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, which was probably written in the late Hellenistic period.  There have been continued attempts and varied claims of having created the magic potion that will change ordinary metal into precious gold.  

Alchemy is an influential tradition whose practitioners have, from antiquity, claimed it to be the precursor to profound powers.  As described in The Encyclopedia of Diederot it is the chemistry of the subtlest kind which allows one to observe extraordinary chemical operations at a more rapid pace; ones that require a long time for nature to produce.  There have been innumerable instances of people easily duped of money by those promising to provide potions that will change stone to gold.................... yet, people are gullible enough to pay heed to such and lose their money !! 

Every sane person knows that the Indian currency is governed and issued by Reserve Bank of India.  Subversive anti-national  elements try to print fake notes and put them in circulation  - and in trying to do that reportedly offer gullible people higher denominations of such fake currency raking in the original currency !  ~what would you say of people, willingly believe that Indian Currency Notes can be made by simply immersing paper in a magic potion !!!! 

Times of India, Chennai Edition of date reports that :  Police on Thursday arrested two men who cheated a  Trichy-based businessman of Rs.25,000/-  after promising him a chemical solution that would turn black paper into currency .After the businessman got two tiffin boxes full of `rasam' and `fish gravy' instead of the solution, he approached police.

A case was registered and the two men were nabbed at a hotel in Trichy . M Lakshmanan, 57, of Alangudi near Pudukottai, and his friend M Periyasamy , 65, of Parapatti near Karur, are now cooling their heels in prison.  Police said Lakshmanan, an office assistant in the social welfare department in Pudukottai, and Periyasamy approached the businessman a few weeks ago and offered the `magic solution' for `25,000.  Based on his complaint, members of an Organised Crime Intelligence Unit team posed as `buyers' and approached Lakshmanan and his friend.

The duo demanded `50,000 but agreed to give it for `40,000 after negotiations. They also promised to give `2 lakh worth of black paper apart from the liquid. They told the `buyers' that at least 500 wads of black paper could be dipped in one bottle of the solution and converted into genuine Indian cur rency . The policemen in disguise asked the two men to come to Chennai but they asked the buyers to come to various places before settling on a hotel near the Trichy central bus terminus as the place for handing over the solution. 

As agreed they met the buyers at the hotel and gave them the two containers. The said the liquid in the two containers should be mixed in another container before the black papers were dipped in it. They were nabbed when they tried to escape with Rs 40,000. The containers, as expected, contained `rasam' and `fish gravy'. 

On April 1, the Chennai police arrested seven people, including an engineering student, in Avadi for duping two businessmen by passing off empty black papers as US dollars. All the seven had themselves been cheated by a Nigerian national before they applied the same trick to cheat the businessmen.

While the duo certainly need to be punished – what do you call that ‘’businessman’ who believed that currency can be made such way !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

10^th Apr 2015.