Three beggars are begging in New York City.

The first one wrote "beg" on his broken steel cup. He received ten bucks the first day.

The second one wrote "beg.com" on his cup. He received several hundred thousand dollars the first day, and someone offered to take him to NASDAQ.

The third one wrote "e-beg" on his cup. On the morning of the first day both IBM and HP sent vice-presidents to talk to him about a strategic alliance, and they each offered him free hardware and professional consulting.

That afternoon Larry Ellison claimed on CNBC that e-beg uses 95% Oracle technology, and i2 announced begTradeMatrix, a b2b industry portal that provides supply chain integration in the begging market. On the evening news, Cisco announced that virtually all e-beg traffic runs over their equipment.