"Ah! You mean the stars?"
"Yes, that's it.
The stars."
"And what do you do with five-hundred millions of stars?"
"Five-hundred-and-one million, six-hundred-twenty-two thousand, seven-hundred-thirty-one.
I am concerned with matters of consequence: I am accurate."
"And what do you do with these stars?"
"What do I do with them?"
"Yes."
"Nothing.
I own them."
"You own the stars?"
"Yes."
"But I have already seen a king who — "
"Kings do not own, they reign over.
It is a very different matter."
"And what good does it do you to own the stars?"
"It does me the good of making me rich."
"And what good does it do you to be rich?"
"It makes it possible for me to buy more stars, if any are discovered."
"This man," the little prince said to himself, "reasons a little like my poor tippler..."
Nevertheless, he still had some more questions.
"How is it possible for one to own the stars?"
"To whom do they belong?" the businessman retorted, peevishly.
"I don't know.
To nobody."
"Then they belong to me, because I was the first person to think of it."
"Is that all that is necessary?"
"Certainly.
When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours.
When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours.
When you get an idea before any one else, you take out a patent on it: it is yours.
So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them."
"Yes, that is true," said the little prince.
"And what do you do with them?"
"I administer them," replied the businessman.
"I count them and recount them.
It is difficult.
But I am a man who is naturally interested in matters of consequence."
The little prince was still not satisfied.
"If I owned a silk scarf," he said, "I could put it around my neck and take it away with me.
If I owned a flower, I could pluck that flower and take it away with me.
But you cannot pluck the stars from heaven..."
"No. But I can put them in the bank."
"Whatever does that mean?"
"That means that I write the number of my stars on a little paper.
And then I put this paper in a drawer and lock it with a key."
"And that is all?"
"That is enough," said the businessman.
"It is entertaining," thought the little prince.