A visitor to a foreign land watched for some time as an itinerant craftsman hammered away on a delicate metal plate. "How much for this piece?" he finally inquired.

The worker tapped and thought, and eventually replied, "Ten coins." "Hmm..." said the visitor, and :"how much for ten such pieces?" The metalsmith tapped on, and then said, "Fifteen coins each."

"Fifteen?" asked the visitor, puzzled. "What if I were to contract you for a hundred of the same piece"?

"For a hundred, the price would be twenty-five coins each, " leveled the artisan.

"Extraordinary!" blurted the flushed visitor. "By what system of reconing do you establish such prices" he demanded.

Soon the answer came: "To make one plate is for me a pleasure. To Assign myself to a hundred would begin to rob me of my joy. The cost rises on one side because the cost rises on the other," said the artisan.

"it is only just."

-unknown author