Exchange Value
"Exchange Value" (1981) is a short story by American writer Charles R. Johnson. Set in Chicago, where Johnson himself lived for a time, this story addresses the corrupting power of money and wealth, and the problem of "hoarding", which is accumulating food, money, and other things for future use, as two brothers steal from a deceased woman, whose outward signs of poverty and begging belied her true nature: a rich, yet cheap, woman who hid her wealth away. Plot summary Loftis and "Cooter" are two young brothers living in a Chicago apartment, who although do not generally take a part of criminal activity, set out to rob their next door neighbor Miss Elnora Bailey. Bailey, who only leaves her apartment at night to ask for food handouts, is a West Indian woman with all the appearances of a beggar. Having not seen Bailey for several days, and seeing her mailbox full, Loftis and Cooter assumed she had left the neighborhood, and would therefore be an easy mark for burglary. Upon breaking into her house from her side window, the brothers first have to bypass several surprising booby traps: boxes of glass set beside the window. Entering Bailey's kitchen and apartment,