God’s own Ponzi

If gods can cure your diseases, give you babies, and help you pass exams, why can’t they help you make money? This is the question Ashok Jadeja, a homeopathic doctor and a member of the Sansi community in Gujarat asked.

Once he got a clear answer, he decided to try it out. And what an incredible success it was! As a humble channel of this awesome supernatural power, he is reputed to have made about ten billion (yes, billion) rupees in a matter of six months when he was arrested in June 2009.

He dressed himself as a godman and sat outside Sansi community’s Vahanvati Shikotar Matadi Temple in Ahmedabad.  After a few days he let the devotees know that he had been blessed by Matadi who instructed him to work for the benefit of the members of the community through tripling their money. If they deposited money with him, Matadi would triple it by evening.

No one believed him. But then some women decided to try it out. They offered small amounts such as Rs 100 in the morning. When they returned in the evening, they couldn’t believe their eyes. The godman pulled out from Matadi’s box three times the amount they had offered in the morning.

Soon the news of Matadi’s running miracle spread throughout the community.  Now not just a few women devotees but men of all descriptions including lawyers and doctors approached him with cash offerings. Jadeja, who had by now been rechristened Ashok Maadi, gradually raised Matadi’s ‘processing’ time from eight hours to twenty-four hours, two days, three weeks, and finally a month. He and his associates encouraged the devotees to re-offer the money and triple it again while the going was good instead of taking back and spending it. This made sense. As a result, very little money that was offered once went back to the ‘devotees.’ Jadeja invested most of the money in gold and real estate in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, CDs on the wonderful boon given by Matadi to her chosen servant were developed and circulated widely. Within weeks news spread to neighbouring states. Apparently Matadi decided to help not only members of the Sansi community but also any devotees who approached her through her humble servant, Ashok Matadi.  Members of his family and a few members of the community helped him accept money by manning the crowded cash counters.

What we find here is a lethal combination of god and mammon.  Both attract deep-seated devotion that shuts out reasoning almost completely.

We have plenty to learn from Jadeja’s way of working. He started out with small confidence building measures to get people to believe his impossible promises. He involved nearly all members of his extended family and many members of his community in his scheme and shared his booty generously with them. Thus they all spoke in one voice about the magical power of Matadi so that the illusion could be maintained. Jadeja also exploited the persuasive power of example. When you find that your neighbour has got something wonderful, you don’t want to miss out. You brush aside any questions your mind might raise.

If this is the way people are persuaded to do even silly things, why is it that in the corporate world we attach so much importance to logic and reasoning?

Photo credits: www.columbia.edu (Vahanvati Shikotar Mata) & www.indianexpress.com (Ashok Jadeja)