Dominguito's father, a small shopkeeper in a village in the chilean countryside, explains to his son that he doesn't trust anyone and buys cheap and sells expensive things. Instead, he sees competitors, the last remnants of a prosperous and warm world that has been destroyed by the insanity of the inhabitants many years before. He sees tears of gold in his son's eyes. He tells him that the boy has been crying for three months rent, and that he's tired and wants to go to sleep. He's not tired, he says, and has already slept all night. The boy is crying because he wants his books and notebooks back for school. Six weeks later, he complains that they've been ingrates. He says he'll give them a smack a week, and they'll be able to live like kings for the rest of their lives. They've just gotten four hundred pounds worth of the best beef in the world, and now they're going to have to hit him even harder to get him to cry again. They can't give him a lance, since it's going to take him days to bleed, and a fork will take them thousands of dollars. They decide to give the boy a white mouse when he grows up, so that he can take an interest in the future. They also decide to throw the boy into a lion pit, since that's the only way they can stop him from crying. They promise to give him one last cry before he dies.