A miser hid his gold at the foot of a tree in his back garden. Every week he would dig it up and look at it for hours, and then he would rebury it. One day a thief was watching as this event took place and when the miser went indoors, he dug up the gold and made off with it.

The following week when the miser came to gaze upon his gold, all he found was an empty hole. The man began to howl with grief and his neighbours came running to find out what was wrong. The miser, by now in floods of tears cried out, “Someone has stolen all my gold, how am I going to manage?” One of his neighbours asked, “Did you ever spend any of this gold?” “No” replied the miser, “But I loved looking at it every week and holding it in my hand.” “Well then,” said his neighbour, “For all the good you have done with this gold and for all the good it has done you, it would perhaps be just the same if you came every week and just gazed upon the hole.”