Category: Class 5 English

Once there was a miser who sold all his possessions and, with the money, bought a great lump of gold, dug a deep hole at the edge of the garden, and there he buried his gold. Once a day, thereafter, the miser went to the garden, dug up his gold, and embraced it lovingly. One of the miser’s workmen wondered why his master spent so much time in the garden. One day, he hid behind a tree and soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure. That night, when the miser was fast asleep, the workman crept into the garden and stole the lump of gold. When the miser found that his gold was gone, he tore his hair and cried aloud in his despair. A neighbour came running to see what the matter was, and the grief-stricken miser told him what had happened. Then the neighbours said, “Pray to stop your weeping. Go and find a stone. Place the stone in the hole and imagine that it is your lump of gold. The stone will serve your purpose, for you never meant to use the gold anyway.” “To a miser, what he has is of no more use than what he has not.”