Rafi Asks for the Spare

Rafi the kingfisher roams all over Barter’s Market, and he’s learned something that makes him a friend everyone likes to trade with: he always asks for the good a pal has to spare — never the one they’re short on.

“It’s just kind,” he told Fen, hopping along the stalls. “Say I need stone. I could go up to Bramble and ask for her stone — but wait, does Bramble have stone to spare? Or is she down to her last one, saving it for her own wall?” He peered into an imaginary basket. “If I ask for her last stone, the one she needs, then even if she says yes, she’s worse off. That’s not a good swap. That helps me and hurts her.”

Fen frowned. “So how do you know what to ask for?”

“You look first,” said Rafi, eyes bright. “You look at what the pal’s got heaps of. Bramble’s basket is overflowing with grain — she’ll never eat it all. So that’s what I ask for! I ask for her spare grain, the stuff she’s happy to see go — and I give her my spare, the thing I’ve got too much of. Two spares, swapped. Nobody gives up their last anything.” He grinned. “That’s the swap that works. Both of us handing over what we don’t need, both of us getting what we do.”

He’d seen little ones make the mistake — marching up and asking for the one good a pal was clinging to, then feeling puzzled when the pal said “no thank you.” But Rafi never did. He roamed, he looked, he found what folk had plenty of, and he asked for that.

“Ask for the spare, not the last,” he said, pleased with the simple rightness of it. “That way a trade never leaves your friend short. Two extras, traded fair. Everyone happy.”

Ask a pal for the good they’ve got to SPARE, not the one they need — a swap only works when neither of you gives up a thing they’re short on. That’s Rafi.