Home
A man hid his gold at the foot of a tree in his garden.
Every week he would dig it up and look at it for hours.
One day a thief dug up the gold and made off with it.
When the man next came to gaze upon his treasure, all he found
was an empty hole.
The man began to howl with grief so his neighbours came running to find
out what the trouble was. When they found out, one of them asked,
“Did you use any of the gold?”
“No,” said the man. “I only looked at it every week.”
“Well, then,” said the neighbour, “For all the good the gold did to you,
you might just as well come every week and gaze upon the hole.”
It is not by our money but by our capacity for enjoyment that we are rich or poor. To strive for wealth and have no capacity for enjoyment is to be like the bald man who struggles to collect combs. (Anthony de Mello, s.j.)