The hot dish: a merchant's case.

Case: A cloth merchant in a busy market town has a rival who has cut his price below cost on the three best-selling weaves. The rival can afford a month of losses; the merchant cannot. He asks how to survive the price war.

There is a story told of a hot dish and a boy who burned his fingers on the middle. The mother said: eat from the edges; the middle stays hot longest. That is how a wise man does not charge the gates of a strong enemy but takes the fields around him first, one by one, until the fortress stands alone.

Sutra: मूल्ययुद्धं गरमथाली — कगार से खाओ।
Moolya-yuddh garam thalī — kagaar se khao.
A price war is a hot dish: eat from the edges.

Three moves for the merchant:

First. Do not cut your price on those three weaves. Let the rival sell them at a loss. Your customers will drift to him briefly — that is the burn you take. Use the capital you save to buy up a fourth weave he does not stock, one the weavers of a nearby village make well and cheaply. That is the edge of the dish.

Second. Go to the largest five households in the market — the ones who buy cloth for weddings and festivals — and offer them a fixed price for that new weave for three months, lower than any spot price. You lock in your buyers before the rival knows what you are selling.

Third. Visit the rival. Do not threaten. Say: 'I will not match your price on the three weaves, but I have taken a fourth that costs me less than yours. If you keep selling at a loss, in three months your purse will be lighter and my new cloth will be in every house. If you want to talk terms, I will listen.' You give him a way out without losing face. If he is smart, he takes it. If not, you have already moved to the cool edges while he burns his hand on the middle.