Seems to me it was more likely they stopped because it wasn't giving them their jollies like they wanted. They wanted him to be angry angry. Instead, he calmly gives them money. Not fun.

> Seems to me it was more likely they stopped because it wasn't giving them their jollies like they wanted.

Indeed, that's a better explanation. One variant has the kids playing soccer and yelling in the park near the old man's house, it would fit the story better.

My apologies, the story isn't à-propos enough and I though it was more universal.

* > It contradicts the story of that old and wise guy who decided to give money to the children who were harassing him.*

Source? I never heard of that.

The version I heard went something like this:

A man was tired of the local youths <doing negative behavior>, so he offered them a small amount of money ($2-3) when they'd <do negative behavior>.

The next week he came to them and told them "sorry, business was slow, all I can give you this week is $1/time." They weren't happy, but agreed.

The next week he went back and said "sorry, even slower, I can only afford $0.25/time now." The youths said "we're not doing this for $0.25!" and stopped <negative behavior> altogether.

I am not sure there are any sources to this story, it's most likely made up to prove a point ("once it's work, it's no fun" and "old people are cunning") and there are variants but it's a rather commmon story told in classroom where I grew up (Belgium).

It's like the story of the boy who cried wolf, its origins are lost in time and not very precise.