The Citizen and Alchemist
An alchemist who was traveling through a unvisited country created a beautiful wooden sword. The next day the alchemist met a citizen of the unknown country, who was poor, and the alchemist said sorry as he showed the citizen his only possession. The citizen saw the wooden sword as a piece of extremely valuable art and asked the alchemist to give it to her. The alchemist did so without hesitation, happy to offer the citizen help. The citizen left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew that in his country, the sword was worth enough to buy a village. But a few days later he came back to return the sword to alchemist.
“I don’t really understand, but there is something I see more valuable,” he said, “I know how powerful the sword is and how wealthy it will make me, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me something so beautiful and precious in the first place. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me your only possession.