Once there was a citizen who decided that when it comes to his personal buying habits, any salesman must provide a detailed product sample for quality inspection, and unless that is done he as a prospect was under no obligation to be swindled.

One day, the citizen was making his way to the market when in the approaching distance he noticed a salesman who worked for a hundreds of years old product company. The salesman was holding a product manual aloft, loudly pronouncing the quality and superiority of his goods in comparison to the competition. Nearer then, the citizen was beset by the proselytizer and solicited to purchase a product written about in the salesman's manual. Eager for a customer, the salesman highlighted passages that described all about what the product could do and proposed benefits, but then went into a long and frightening talk about what dangerous things would occur to the citizen if he refused to take delivery.

The citizen wasn't very pleased with the nasty threat, but was sporting enough to at least take a look at the merchandise.

"Very well then, you have told me all about what the product can do and what your company thinks about the product and the temperament of the product, but I'd like to know this: WHAT IS THE PRODUCT ITSELF? Once that is answered, let's see the product so that I may test it for quality and practicality," said the citizen.

"Sir, you don't understand. None of us has ever ‘seen’ the product. There is no ACTUAL product available for me to demonstrate. I can't tell you WHAT it is, or WHERE it is, but only what we THINK and BELIEVE about it based on what other salespeople before me wrote regarding it; and of course I am duty bound to inform you of the dire consequences that will come upon you if you don't acquire it. It is all written down here in this book of old, passed down from generations unknown. You have to take my word for it that I have and know the product, and that the product will make itself known to you and become yours upon purchase," responded the salesman.

"You have no product, then? How am I supposed to buy what is not here to buy?"

"Citizen, mind your tongue. Are you DENYING the existence of my product - take care! Take care!"

"I'm not denying anything. This does not rise to a valid enough level to warrant a denial. What is there to deny? I am neither denying your product nor denying your claim, nor am I making a claim of my own. One hears many claims in the world and goes about one's business of living freely and happily until the claimant produces the thing claimed. That is very generous of me to you because you are welcome to support your claim by proving the actual existence of your product for the purpose of my purchasing it. Do you see how generous I am? I am inviting you - encouraging you even - to show your product. That is magnanimous. That is a good citizen."

Continuing, the citizen emphasized, "Until such proof is provided, there is no denying what is unverified and fails to even rise to the level of deniability. I am an honest person and an honest person doesn't deny something that is unsubstantiated."

"So then, Sir, you are telling me that you disbelieve in my product?"

"Belief? Belief in WHAT? Have you produced a product?"

"There is no actual product I can provide you to see or to touch; however, if you just submit to BELIEVE in it, you will come to accept it as true, and it will make itself known to you."

"Let me get this straight, Mr. Salesman. You want me to engage in the visceral action of 'BELIEVING' something that you have not substantiated, so that my mind will shift its perception from objectivity to self-deceiving assumption; so that the fact - the FACT, mind you - that you have no product to show becomes irrelevant; so that, by BELIEVING something that has not been demonstrated, my own mind will begin to construct and embrace a false perception wherein I am convinced that the unreal is real? You are telling me that I must DELUDE MYSELF so that substantiation is no longer required. I must therefore believe you in order to find you truthful."

"The product manual instructions say that you must believe before you can take delivery of the product."

"WHAT PRODUCT?" The citizen was insistent.

"Well, a product that is unseen, unheard, unfelt, and unknown except by those who BELIEVE in it."

"So, in order to purchase your product, I must choose to BELIEVE in it. I have to convince myself that it exists in my own mind despite the overwhelming evidence including your own confession that there is no product forthcoming. Upon accepting, no actual product will be produced except that I'll continually convince myself that there is a product. Essentially, I am not allowed to remain a rational, reasoning human being if I want to be your customer. Seems to me that all I'll end up with is self-delusion and a monthly payment."

"Sir, rational, reasoning thinkers are not our strongest market. There are very, very few psychologically objective people among our customer base. We've found that they usually try to return the product for a refund."

"Since I cannot take the product for a test run without first fully buying into it, I'll need time to think about it. A generous offer, mind you. I'm not one to just leap into an abyss without first casting a stone into the dark depths to see if I detect a solid bottom. As it stands, your proposal is unappealing.

The salesman was put out by the citizen's position, "With that approach, Sir, you will learn soon enough how substantial my proposal is when you find yourself in trouble that you can't get out of and in pain that you can't even fathom!"

"Oh, really? I once had a surly, unseemly fellow walk into my shop and make a similar proposal that I prevent myself from coming to harm by paying him for his form of 'protection'. I took a cane to his head and turned him over to the officials, with whom he has been keeping pleasant company for several months. Don't think me eager to decline, why with such terrible stakes looming over my decision. It's just that this sort of thing should be well considered. I refuse to submit to pressure!"

"Oh, no need for that, Sir. Merely because you risk horrendous doom if you don't take delivery doesn't mean that you don't have a choice. You go on ahead and think carefully, and don't dally, for you must remember the dire circumstances that not having our product will mean for you."

"And what will bring such dire circumstances to me if I fail to buy your product?"

"The product, itself."

"Excuse me? Are you saying that if I don't buy your product, your product will cause me harm?"

"Yes! And what a terrible harm it will cause you - without end, unendurable, you will beg and scream for mercy and none will come! You will wish for death, and death will turn its back!"

"You, Mr. Salesman, are a lunatic. You demand that I purchase a product you don't have and have no actual knowledge of. You tell me that I have to convince myself that what is not there is actually there.

You tell me that this product is deadly and causes unfathomable harm to people, namely those who don't buy it. Then, you want me to take possession of this evil thing that you have no actual knowledge nor possession of. Here in my hand, you'll find I have a cane. I actually possess it and have intimate knowledge of it, and you too can share that knowledge. Note the notches resulting from my last encounter with an extortionist. I have become suddenly eager to prove my cane is not a delusion. If you threaten me again, I will contact the Constabulary and have you hauled off to the pokey, with your forehead bearing the undeniable empirical evidence supporting my claim of this cane's existence."

Later that day when the citizen arrived home, many of his neighbors visited his house and asked if he had made the purchase, and when he answered that he declined, they were every one of them either perplexed, stunned, or incredulous. When pressed as to the reason behind the citizen's declining, he asked each if they themselves had the product in hand, or knew any other neighbor possessing the actual product, or whether they themselves ever even met anyone who actually had possession of the product, to which and to a person they confessed the negative; however, they all expressed a great hope that someday the product would present itself. When each, in turn, was asked by the citizen if they knew what the product was, none of them could tell him. None of them knew what the product was, where the product might be located, when the product was to arrive, or if there was even an actual product. However, they trusted the product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman who was sold to and recruited by a product-less salesman...