the miser 

Once upon a time there was a man who was so greedy that his greatest illusion in life was to have wealth in order to feel like an important person.

One day he decided to sell everything he had; he put all his belongings in a big sack and went to the city on his faithful donkey. When he arrived, he exchanged everything for a glittering bar of gold. He didn't even feel sorry for getting rid of the donkey, which he loved so much! The important thing for him was to be really rich.

He returned on foot while thinking about where he would hide his valuable treasure. He had to make it safe from possible thieves. At home he had almost no more goods because he had sold practically everything, but he didn't care... That ingot was worth it!

He searched conscientiously for a suitable place and finally, in the garden surrounding the house, he found a hole hidden behind a stone.

- It's the perfect place to hide the gold bar! - he thought as he carefully wrapped it in a cotton cloth and put it in the hole.

Although he believed that no one would ever discover his secret, he couldn't help but be uneasy.

He slept badly at night and every day, with the first rays of sunlight, he would go out into the garden and lift the stone to check that the gold piece was still in place. Satisfied, he continued with his daily chores. For months, he acted the same way every morning: he would get up and go straight to the hole camouflaged behind the rock.

A neighbor who used to walk there at that time, saw how every day the miser picked up a stone from the garden and then left. Intrigued, he decided to investigate what it was that he was looking at so much. With great stealth he approached the rock and to his surprise, discovered a glittering bar of gold the size of a bar of soap. He quickly slipped the loot into a pocket and disappeared without anyone seeing him.

When the miser went the next morning to see his treasure, the hole was empty.

- Oh, no... I've been robbed! I've been robbed! I'm no longer a rich man! - he lamented - What will become of me...?

A peasant who heard his weeping, approached him and asked him the reason for his sadness. Dejected, he told him the story. The peasant could not help but tell him what he thought.

- You gave away things that were useful to you and exchanged them for a worthless bar of gold, just for the pleasure of looking at it and feeling rich and powerful. Take that gray stone next to your feet, put it in the hole and think of it as a piece of gold. It will be good for the same thing, that is to say... for nothing!

The miser admitted he had made a mistake. Now he was poorer than ever, but at least he learned from his mistake and began to appreciate the important things in life.

Moral: we should value the things that are useful and make life more enjoyable. Accumulating wealth, if not enjoyed, is useless.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

QUESTIONS.

1.What did you like most about the story? ______________________________________________________________________

2. what is the moral of the story? _______________________________________________________________________________

3. what would you change about the story? _____________________________________________________________________