Now some sort of hunting or fishing competition would be a whole other ballgame. Satan would be raking them in like mad.

As you note, the fiddle has no inherent worth. It’s only value is as a way of showing off. “I stole this from Johnny” just doesn’t have the cachet of “I got this by out-fiddling the Devil.”

For Johnny, first, it’s probably a matter of pride. He seems the overconfident sort for which showing up the devil with his superior fiddling skills would be its own reward; the golden fiddle just become a bonus.

That said, he’s probably not in the sort of socio-economic status where he could easily acquire a golden fiddle on his own; this one then becomes a great conversation piece. Leave it in the living room, and people are invariably gonna ask, “Hey, where’d you get that?” Providing the opportunity for Johnny, who, as a I said, probably has a bit of an ego, to say, “Well, funny you should ask that…”

Which ties into the second issue. Johnny’s declared the winner because both Johnny and the Devil agree he won. Johnny, being, again, an egomaniac, is, of course, going to say he won. For the Devil, the only way it makes sense is that it’s a loss leader. He’s in a bind ’cause he’s way behind, and needs some souls to steal. Well, sure, he could get ‘em one by one, the hard way. But, for Satan, giving up a golden fiddle is nothing. A trinket.

But, now, here’s this yokel Johnny that thinks he actually beat the devil, and has a worthless golden fiddle to show for it. So what’s he gonna do? Well, of course, he’s gonna go to all his yokel friends and brag about it. And they’re all gonna say, well, crap, if Johnny can do it, so can I. And now, without having to go looking any further, Satan’s got rednecks lining up for yards to bet their souls against worthless crap. All in a good day’s work.

My boys are very much into the Star Wars right now and would love these! Too bad I can’t knit.