Chapter 13 🔊✎

The fourth planet belonged to a businessman. 🔊✎ He was in the middle of doing something when the little prince arrived and did n’t even take a moment to look up. 🔊✎

“Hello,” said the little prince. “Your cigarette has gone out.” 🔊✎

“Three and two makes five. Five and seven makes twelve. Twelve and three makes fifteen. Hello. 🔊✎ Fifteen and seven makes twenty-two- Twenty-two and six makes twenty-eight. No time to light it again. 🔊✎ Twenty-six and five makes thirty-one. Yes! 🔊✎ So altogether, that’s five hundred and one million, six hundred and twenty-two thousand, seven hundred and thirty-one.” 🔊✎

“Five hundred million what?” 🔊✎

“Huh? You’re still here? Five hundred million… I do n’t know… so busy! 🔊✎ I’ve got important things to do, I do n’t waste my time on nonsense. Two and five makes seven…” 🔊✎

“Five hundred million what?” repeated the little prince, who had never in his life let go of a question once he asked it. 🔊✎

The businessman raised his head. 🔊✎

“I’ve been living on this planet for fifty-four years, and I’ve only been bothered three times. 🔊✎ The first time was twenty-two years ago. Some stupid duck from God knows where fell out of the sky and made so much noise I messed up four sums. 🔊✎ The second time was eleven years ago, I had an attack of rheumatism. I do n’t get enough exercise. 🔊✎ No time, I’ve got important things to do. 🔊✎ The third time, that’s now. 🔊✎ As I was saying, five hundred and one million…” 🔊✎

“Millions of what?” 🔊✎

The businessman realised there was no hope he’d just be left alone. 🔊✎

“Millions of those little things you sometimes see in the sky.” 🔊✎

“Flies?” 🔊✎

“No, no, those little shiny things.” 🔊✎

“Bees?” 🔊✎

“No! Those little golden things that get lazy idiots dreaming. 🔊✎ Not me, I’ve got important things to do. No time for dreaming.” 🔊✎

“Ah! 🔊✎ Stars?” 🔊✎

“That’s it. Stars.” 🔊✎

“And what do you do with five hundred million stars?” 🔊✎

“Five hundred and one million, six hundred and twenty-two thousand, seven hundred and thirty-one. It’s important to get it right.” 🔊✎

“And what do you do with these stars?” 🔊✎

“What I do?” 🔊✎

“Yes.” 🔊✎

“Nothing. I own them.” 🔊✎

“But I’ve already met a king who…” 🔊✎

“Kings do n’t ‘own’. They ‘reign’. It’s completely different.” 🔊✎

“So what use is it to own the stars?”

“It makes me rich.” 🔊✎

“And what use is it to be rich?”

“It lets me buy other stars if someone discovers them.” 🔊✎

“This guy,” said the little prince to himself, “he thinks a bit like the drunk.” 🔊✎

But all the same, he had some more questions. 🔊✎

“How can you own the stars?” 🔊✎

“Who do you think owns them then?” replied the businessman grumpily. 🔊✎

“I do n’t know. No one.” 🔊✎

“Well then they’re mine, because I thought of it first.” 🔊✎

“That’s enough?” 🔊✎

“Of course it is. 🔊✎ If you find a diamond that does n’t belong to anyone, it’s yours. 🔊✎ If you discover an island that does n’t belong to anyone, it’s yours. 🔊✎ If you’re the first person to think of an idea, you can patent it and then it’s yours. 🔊✎ Well, I own the stars because no one before me ever thought of owning them.” 🔊✎

“I’m sure you’re right,” said the little prince. “And what do you do with them?” 🔊✎

“I look after them. I count them over and over again,” said the businessman. 🔊✎ “It’s difficult. But it’s an important job.” 🔊✎

The little prince was still not satisfied. 🔊✎

“If I have a scarf,” he said, “I can put It round my neck and take it away. 🔊✎ If I have a flower, I can pick it and take it away. 🔊✎ But you ca n’t pick the stars!” 🔊✎

“No, but I can put them in the bank.” 🔊✎

“What does that mean?” 🔊✎

“It means I write the number of stars on a bit of paper. And then I lock that bit of paper in a drawer.” 🔊✎

“That’s all?” 🔊✎

“It’s enough!” 🔊✎

“It might be fun,” thought the little prince. “It’s even poetic in a way. But it’s not very important.” 🔊✎

The little prince had very different ideas from the grown-up people about what was important. 🔊✎

“I have a flower,” he said, “and I water it every day. 🔊✎ I have three volcanoes and I clean them out every week. 🔊✎ I clean out the extinct one too. You never know. 🔊✎ It’s useful for my volcanoes that I own them, and it’s useful for my flower. 🔊✎ But you are n’t useful for the stars…”

The businessman opened his mouth. But he could n’t find anything to say, and the little prince left. 🔊✎

“The grown-ups really are completely weird,” he said to himself as he travelled along. 🔊✎