Coined Treasures

Once a rich man invited all to give some amount of his wealth to all the poor folks around him. A poor man lived with his son and wife. He also came to see the rich man more because he wanted to meet and talk with the rich man. After spending a few minutes he came to know that this person was very generous at heart. The rich man’s stock of gifts had exhausted by the time their conversation ended. So he asked of the rich man that nobody even thought of.

Can you give me 1/10th of what you have every year to which the rich man agreed.

So every year our poor guy visited him and took his share and returned. Everybody envied the poor man and asked the rich man to stop giving to the poor man every year. But as was his nature he gave a lot of presents to everyone who came to him for help. Slowly all his wealth disappeared and his business suffered and he saw bad days where he couldn’t survive with some help from the villagers. He had to sell his house and look for a small shed at the outskirts.

His wife told him to ask help from the villagers whom he had helped all along. But nobody bothered to help and chided him for wasting his wealth away and for his charitable acts. On the way he met our poor man who looked the same to him. He lived in the same hut with his family and worked in the same fields as before.

Feeling sorry the rich man asked what did he do with the wealth gifted by him. You are still poor. I thought of asking you for some money but you appear worse as before. The poor man smiled. Nobody is poor as long he wants to help someone. At one point of time you were rich and you were generous and true to the word. I, by my experience knew that wealth and trade do not flourish for ever if we aren’t careful. So all the money I took from you is still safe with me. Take it, buy back your house and live peacefully. Help others who are needy and don’t give away wealth to those who do not value it. You may earn yourself a name but that will vanish as soon as your store is empty.