Money doesn’t grow on trees.

It drops like manna from heaven.

Or so some residents of Huế City might have thought last week piles of red envelopes with currency notes rained down on a stadium.  

Heaven, in this instance, was a hot air balloon, from which a man was dropping the said envelopes.

It turns out that the man who had money to burn (the envelopes contained notes of VNĐ5,000, US$0.2 and VNĐ10,000, $0.4) was Phạm Tuấn Sơn, author of a book called “Dare to get rich.”

If you are wondering if people were daring to pick up the envelopes, don’t worry. About 100 extras had been employed for that specific purpose, but whether the money they collected was an extra payment or not, we don’t know.

But we’ve been informed, very reliably, that the activity was the author’s idea, a publicity stunt to spread the book’s message, which goes thus:

“The opportunities to be financially free, earn money and get rich are all around us. But can we see them to catch them? To see and grab these opportunities, we need knowledge about management on personal finance.”

Not to rain on his parade, but the “rain of good fortune,” as the event was billed, spread further than intended, thanks to strong winds that blew the envelopes outside the stadium, pleasantly surprising several pedestrians and food vendors, who promptly dared to get richer, if not rich; some by up to a million đồng, according to media reports.

While the author refused to reveal how much cash he spent on the event, he certainly got returns on his investment, with locals and netizens pronouncing his money scattering offensive. Whether or not he puts his money where his mouth is remains to be seen, but the feedback elicited an apology.

As they say, money can’t buy everything, but if the book sells well as a result of this negative publicity, the author could still laugh all the way to the bank. — VNS