Daneen first heard the words ‘barter trade’ at the age of 10 and a half, when she overheard her mother, who was an entrepreneur, talking about a barter trade deal on her phone. The word intrigued her so she immediately searched the word on the internet and the definition she found, beguiled her even more.

For those of you who don’t know what a barter trade is, let me tell you. It is basically a system of exchange where participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services in return for other goods or services, without having to use money.

A few months later, she again read the word in a business magazine. The barter trade concept was still in the back of her mind and reading this word again excited her.

Her mother, Sonia, was a very busy entrepreneur and despite listening to Daneen’s every issue, she wasn’t able to pay much attention to her daughter’s slowly, yet surely, changing behaviour. Daneen was becoming quieter day by day. Sonia had noticed this easily recognisable transformation in daughter’s demeanour, since she loved to talk and in spite of her excellent academic record and charming nature, she just wouldn’t stop chattering. Sonia deduced this newly adopted silence as an effect of growing up, but she couldn’t be more wrong about it.

One day, while on a phone call she came into Daneen’s room, looking for something. Holding her phone with one hand and opening the drawer with the other in her usual busy way, she spotted a file that caught her attention. The file was labelled ‘Business deal’ and for a moment Sonia was shocked to find such a thing in Daneen’s drawer, since her daughter hadn’t yet expressed any interest in the field of business and, besides, she was only ten.

She opened the file and the inside contents stunned her even more and she completely forgot the phone call. In utter disbelief, she flipped through the pages of the file and with each page her lips became clenched and lines appeared on her forehead, and she slumped down on the armchair with the file in her hand. The pages in the file included a contract and some pages related to a ‘barter trade’, and by the looks of it, it was palpable that her daughter had made a deal with some of her classmates (she was able to deduce this from the signatures present there).

She decided to talk to Daneen when she would return from school. However, she didn’t need to wait any longer. The next day, she received a call from Daneen’s school, and they needed her there for an urgent matter.

Extremely worried, she arrived at the school and whatever she heard there appalled her even more. Even while knowing that her daughter had done something unruly, hearing from the school staff that Daneen had been conducting ‘business’ in her class, left her very shocked. A child who had been involved in this business, upon losing an expensive belonging, had told her parents, and that’s how the school faculty had come to know.

Not much time had passed since this business had begun. The beginning was actually coincidental; a few weeks ago, Daneen had spotted a class fellow’s necklace and taken a shine to it. She then asked her mother to buy it for her, but her mother had refused because she had just bought a new necklace for Daneen on her 11th birthday and buying another expensive one just wasn’t acceptable.

Daneen really wanted that necklace and she wasn’t going to give up so easily. So she sought a new way to obtain that necklace, something that didn’t involve money and the immediate solution that came to her head was the barter trade system. With a set resolution, she went to talk to the girl with the necklace the next day.

She asked her for what (except money) would she want in order to give Daneen that necklace. The girl said that she really liked the pencil case of another student, and if Daneen could get her that, then she would give her the necklace. The owner of the pencil case said she admired the watch of one other student, and the student whose watch she liked was interested in the sneakers of another….

This cycle continued until one classmate wanted Daneen’s bag, and Daneen immediately decided to exchange her bag in order to gain that necklace. The next day, all the seven students involved in Daneen’s barter system chain gathered during recess and swapped their less-favourite possessions in return for the things of others that they liked. Everyone was pleased and content, until one day one of the girl’s parents found out and reported to the school, and the school called Sonia.

After having the discussion, Sonia took Daneen to home. On the way home, Daneen was still quiet. She didn’t dare say anything and upon reaching home, her mother told her to come to her room after 10 minutes and then they’ll talk. After the 10 longest minutes of Daneen’s life, she finally went to her mother’s bedroom.

Sonia was sitting on the couch with the school’s warning letter in her hand. With trembling hands and feet, Daneen slowly made her way to the couch.

Then Sonia started, “Were you sent to the school to do the business?” her voice wasn’t high, but still so cold that it sent a chill up Daneen’s spine.

“No,” she said in a shaky voice.

“Then what were you sent for?” again that cold tune.

“To study,” the answer came in that same quivering voice.

“And this is what you were studying?” this time Sonia thundered while tossing aside the warning letter. Daneen stayed quiet this time.

“I am very disappointed,” her voice reflected such dismay that Daneen wanted to cry at letting her mother down.

“I am really sorry, mummy!” Daneen said with tears in her eyes.

“And why did you feel the need to do all this?” Sonia said, unmoved by the tears.

Daneen told her everything from beginning to end.

“Where is that necklace that you exchanged for your bag?” Sonia asked.

“With me,” Daneen replied.

“Now write a letter in which you would apologise to all of your classmates and return that necklace, and everything else that you exchanged, to its right owner. Okay?

“Ok, but how will I do this?” Daneen asked worriedly while wiping her tears.

“You started the barter chain, you should also know how to reverse it, you have one week, then we’ll talk,” Sonia got up and left.

As Daneen saw her mother go, she realised that whatever her mother had told her to do was going to be very humiliating. Apologising from each person wasn’t difficult, but the real dilemma was returning every exchanged thing to its right owner. She was well aware that not everyone would happily return the things and she was also sure that not everyone would have kept the exchanged item in a good condition. She realised that this situation in which her mother had put her into was going to be very unpleasant.

The next stage of this business was the most didactic and moralistic experience of Daneen’s life. Convincing everyone to exchange the items was easy, but to make them return a favourite thing was very arduous.

After a week, Daneen became from one of the most popular students in her class to one of the most disliked, but that didn’t matter to her now since her mother had forgiven her. Her mum had explained that anything that is not our property but someone else’s, can’t be our most favourite thing. Our most favourite thing is and should be something that is our own possession, we don’t have any right over someone else’s things. Daneen promised not to do anything like this again.

Success teaches a person one lesson, failure ten, but Daneen had learned 15 lessons from this experience.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 5th, 2020