There was once a person who was very stingy.
One day he tried to cross a river by himself, but he slipped because
the current was extremely strong. And then the current swept him
away, down the middle of the river.
So he shouted, "Can anyone help me?
I'll give you money!"
There was a person on a boat nearby and
he said, "OK. For fifty dollars I'll help you." But
the man in the river replied, "Fifty dollars! That's too
expensive. I'll give you twenty." So the person on
the boat said, "No, no, that's too cheap."
By now the man in the river was trying
very hard to breathe and was even swallowing some of the river
water. So he said, "OK, OK, thirty dollars!" But the
person on the boat said, "No, no. Forty dollars is my last
price."
And the man in the water said, "I
- I - I'd rather die!"