Let's get straight to the point today - how's your back end? Very well, thank you, and what's it got to do with you?

Good question!

The reason I'm asking is that I've learned something interesting about back ends, you see. As long as you give them the right kind of attention they can expand in ways you would never have thought possible, and make you rather rich in the process.

Excuse me ... you at the back there! Where are you going? Don't leave now - this really isn't about what you're thinking it's about. If you'll just bear with me for a moment, all will be revealed.

Right ... where was I? Ah, yes. I was about to tell you about something that happened to me a few days ago. It's the sort of thing that's probably happened to you at some point, too, so I'm sure you'll recognise the situation.

It was a nice weekend so I took my son Daniel to the funfair that had come to town (any excuse, eh?). Once we'd finished riding on "dreadful machines" that turned us upside down and every which way, he wanted to win a stuffed toy. Hardly surprising really, there were at least a dozen stalls with huge fluffy animals hanging from their plastic roofs.

But try as we might - yes, I'll admit I had a go - we couldn't get a ring to land over a bottle or a dart to hit a dot on a card.

But then, just as I was about to admit defeat, I noticed a stall with a difference...

This one offered three balls for a pound, and all you had to do was get one of the balls into one of the strategically placed glass bowls. It looked easy enough.

The bowls had nice, big openings and as long as the balls weren't weighted in some way, it looked as if even a babe in arms would be able to hit a bowl.

We bought three balls each and lo and behold, we won. Both of us! Two goldfish! A pure orange fish that seemed to enjoy flicking its fancy, flowing tail and a black and yellow example that appeared to hang motionless in the water staring out through the bag most of the time.

I heard several people comment on this, most saying that goldfish must be cheap if stall owner could give them away like that. Of course, he wasn't giving them away at all. People were paying a pound for the honour of winning a fish, but even so, when you consider the overheads a funfair must have, he couldn't have been making much of a profit. Or so it would seem.

How many of those who won a fish do you imagine went to the fair believing they'd come home with a new pet in a plastic bag? A few may well have had a tank and food left over from a previous fish but most would undoubtedly be wondering what on earth they were going to do with it.

This is where we see just how clever said stall owner really is.

The bowls you have to hit in order to win a fish are arranged on a table covered in a velvet cloth. What the punter doesn't know at the time is that underneath the table there are dozens of plastic goldfish bowls complete with food, gravel, and plastic plant. How many do you imagine are going to say no to buying one of these handy starter kits when junior's standing there with a fish he's thrilled to have won?

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