The Miser and His Gold

There was a man who had sold most of his possessions for a large sack of gold. Instead of using the gold, either for himself or to help others, he buried it under a tree in his garden.

Everyday, he would go out to the tree, dig up his gold and count each piece, gloating over the fact that he had this much wealth. And each day, when he was done, he would bury the gold once more.

Well, one day a thief saw the man go through this ritual and he waited until all was clear. Then the thief snuck over to the tree, dug up the gold, and ran off into the night.

The next day, the man arrived once more to dig up his gold and saw that his precious treasure was gone... stolen from the base of the tree. He started pulling at his hair and wailing about his loss.

The neighbors came running to see what was wrong. When he told them about the gold buried under the tree, one fellow asked, "Well, did you spend the money or use it for a good purpose?"

"No," replied the miser, "I only dug it up to count it and to look at it."

"Well then," came the reply. "Here is a large rock. Why not bury that in place of the gold, for it will do you about as much good."

Moral of the story: Something that is never used is worthless.



Holding on to things that you never use is a useless practice. Why do you have the object if you never allow yourself to enjoy its function?