[A. G. Maisey]

Penangsang, in this life there is one thing that is almost universally true:-

you mostly get what you pay for.

When a man is working under the aegis of a karaton, or even a lord of lower degree, his objective would have been to produce the very best he was capable of, and he was maintained at a level that permitted this.

Now, if a person is sufficiently relaxed to leave behind the security of life under the patronage of a lord, then he needs to make his own way, and his time assumes a different value.

I think that we can assume that if this man was working for a bag of rice, the keris would be worth a bag of rice, on the other hand, if he was working for a brace of kerbau, the keris value would correspond to this.