The Bank That Only Takes Cheese

This bank only takes cheese. Send this to whoever thinks banking cannot get stranger. In the hills of northern Italy, a bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of cheese.

Ova banka prima samo sir. Pošalji ovo onome tko misli da bankarstvo ne može biti čudnije. U brdima sjeverne Italije jedna banka drži trezor s više od pola milijuna kolutova sira.

The cheese is Parmigiano Reggiano, and it belongs to local dairy farmers. Instead of waiting years for the cheese to age and sell, farmers hand their wheels straight to the bank as collateral for a loan, and the bank pays them a large share of the value right away.

Sir je Parmigiano Reggiano i pripada domaćim mljekarima. Umjesto da godinama čekaju da sir odleži i da se proda, oni svoje kolutove predaju banci kao zalog za kredit, a banka im odmah isplati velik dio vrijednosti.

While the loan runs, the bank stores and ages the wheels itself, checking each one and rotating them like a library of cheese. When the cheese finally sells at full price, the farmer settles the loan, and the whole system starts again with the next harvest.

Dok kredit traje, banka sama čuva i odležava kolutove, provjerava svaki od njih i okreće ih kao knjige u knjižnici. Kad se sir napokon proda po punoj cijeni, mljekar zatvori kredit i cijeli sustav kreće ispočetka s idućom sezonom.