The Miser

A miser once sold everything he had and bought gold instead.

He carefully buried the gold in a hole near his house. He used to look at the gold daily and admire it. One of his workmen noticed him doing this and one day, he dug the spot where the gold lay hidden and stole it.

The next day, when the miser found the hole empty he could not believe that someone had stolen all his gold. He cried loudly and began to tear his hair in despair.

On hearing the cause of his grief, his neighbour gave him a stone and advised, “Don’t feel sad. Place this stone in the hole and imagine that it is the gold. It will make no difference since you did not make any use of the gold as long as you had it.”