`Write this down,' said Mr Wormwood. `I bought car number one for two hundred and seventy-eight pounds and sold it for one thousand four hundred and twenty-five. Car number two cost me one hundred and eighteen pounds and sold for seven hundred and sixty. Car number three cost one hundred and eleven pounds and sold for nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds fifty pence. Never say one thousand pounds, son. Always ask for nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds fifty. It seems much smaller than a thousand, but it isn't.'
`Very clever, dad,' said the boy.