True value of
wealth
A miser, who never stopped worrying about the safety of his possessions, sold all his property and converted it into a huge lump of gold.
This he buried
in a hole and every morning he went to visit it and gloat over its size.
The miser’s
strange behaviour aroused the curiosity of a thief.
Spying on the
rich man from some bushes, the thief saw him place the lump of gold back in the
hole and cover it up.
As soon as the
miser’s back was turned, the thief went to the spot, dug up the gold, and took
it away.
The next
morning, when the miser went to gloat over his treasure, he found nothing but
an empty hole.
He wept and
tore his hair, and so loud were his lamentations that his neighbour came running
to see what the trouble was.
As soon as he
had learned the cause of it, the neighbour said comfortingly, “You are foolish to
distress yourself over something that was buried in the earth.
Take a stone
and put it in the hole, and think that it is your gold.
You were never
meant to use it anyway.
Therefore, it
will do you just as much good to fondle a lump of granite as a lump of gold!
The true value
of money is not in its possession, but in its use.
