Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin

I suddenly realized what Aahz was up to. Quigley rose to the bait like a hungry pike-turtle.

“Hmm. . . .” he said. “Tell you what. Just to give a hand to a fellow demon hunter who’s down on his luck, I’ll take it off your hands for five gold pieces.”

“Five gold pieces! You must be joking. I paid three hundred for it. I couldn’t possibly let it go for less than two hundred.”

“Oh, well, that counts me out. I only have about fifty gold pieces on me.”

“Fifty?”

“Yes, I never travel with more than….”

“But then again, times have been hard, and seeing as how you would be using it to do battle against the fiends who put the curse on me…. Yes, I think I could let you have it for fifty gold pieces.”

“But that’s all the money I have.”

“Yes, but what good is a fat purse if you’re torn asunder by a demon?”

“True enough. Let me see it.”

He took the blade and hefted, giving it a few experimental swings.

“Crummy balance.” He grimaced.

“You get used to it.”

“Lousy steel,” he declared, squinting at the blade.

“Nice edge on it, though.”

“Well, my trainer always told me ‘If you take care of your sword, it will take care of you!’ “

“We must have had the same trainer.”

The two of them smiled at each other. I felt slightly ill.

“Still, I dunno. Fifty pieces of gold is a lot.”

“Just look at those stones in the handle.”

“I did. They’re fake.”

“Aha! They’re made to look fake. It hides their value.”

“Sure did a nice job. What kind of stones are they?”

“Blarney stones.”

“Blarney stones?”

“Yes. They’re said to ensure your popularity with the ladies, if you know what I mean.”