Imagine that we were visited by the god who really made the world, and there are many contenders for this great feat. Imagine also that he or she offered to put the earth right after our many childish misdeeds, but that each and every one of us would have to make the greatest sacrifice we could imagine in return. Discounting all the free riders, and there would be loads of them, as ever, imagine what the most honest among us would come up with: the third family car, a collection of long-play records, one of ten cows, a monthly salary, grandmother’s credenza, one of eight vineyards, next winter’s family holiday, an album with wedding photographs, three of fifty sheep, the second camera… Now imagine how that mischievous god would laugh at us. The laughter would ring in our ears for years on end.