Excerpt from Tales Told by Figures: Number Eighteen of a Series of Modern Business Talks A mercantile house of considerable size had a retail stock ledger that proved to be an embezzler. For many years it had been regarded as a book of exemplary habits, and nobody suspected it of lead ing a double life. But this is usually the way with embezzlers. They are often pillars of society; they fool even their best friends. The way this stock ledger came to grief makes an interesting story with a moral of its own. It so happened that the man who ran the business also ran short of ready cash - not an unusual thing in business. Much is said and written on the subject. Often the trouble is attributed to poor goods or to bad salesmanship. Again it is said to be the result of advertising that does not advertise. Frequently these charges are true enough. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.