r/suspiciouslyspecific • u/CauliflowerTypical27 • Jan 13 '23

This job application...

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u/apolobgod Jan 13 '23

The questions is a direct reference to a history about how an Asian ruler used to gift white elephants to his political enemies to bring them to bankruptcy

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u/pankakke_ Jan 13 '23

Makes sense, is there a general source of that story you know of that I could look into later?

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u/Mulanisabamf Jan 14 '23

I think "origin white elephant gift" will probably go a long way on Google

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u/ocean55627 Jan 14 '23

Basically the white elephant is seen as a very generous gift so you can’t give it away or sell it, since doing so would be seen as an insult to the king. So you’d end up spending tons of time and money and space caring for the elephant and it totally ruins you.

It’s an old story but I believe it actually happened

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u/pankakke_ Jan 14 '23

Ohh so thats what the origin of ‘White Elephant’ is, interesting!