It is told that in ancient times, there was a rich merchant, but despite that, he was stingy. He increased in stinginess every time he collected more coins. Nothing occupied him in life except earning more pieces of gold coins and collecting them in a large box. Once, the merchant bought a flock of sheep and sold it for a large price. He returned from the market to his house happy, his wallet stuffed with money. How could he not be happy when he owned four hundred gold coins.
The greedy merchant said to himself, “I’ll buy sheep again with these four hundred coins and sell them for eight hundred coins.” He kept promising himself to buy sheep and the increase in profit. While he was lost in his dreams, the wallet accidentally slipped from his pocket to the ground without him noticing.
When he reached his house, he discovered the loss of his money-filled wallet. He went mad and almost lost his mind. The man kept thinking about how things had turned out. That day he couldn’t sleep all night. In the morning, he went to the city ruler and asked for his help, saying, “Oh great ruler, champion of the miserable and all honorable people! I beg you to save me from this disaster.”
“My money is lost, and with it my trade. I beg you to announce in the kingdom a great reward of forty coins for whoever finds a wallet with four hundred coins in it.” The ruler pitied the merchant’s condition, and on the same day sent a crier to announce the loss of the merchant’s wallet in the main square of the city and the generous reward he set for whoever found it.
After three days, a poor man who appeared to show signs of destitution and poverty came to the ruler and gave him the money wallet with four hundred coins in it, not a single coin missing. The ruler said to him, “Oh honest man, you deserve this reward because you didn’t covet the money despite your need.” The ruler ordered the merchant to be brought immediately.
When the merchant saw the money wallet, he grabbed it like a mother grabs her child, emptied the coins onto the table, and began counting the gold pieces. He found them complete, nothing missing—they were four hundred gold coins. But the greedy merchant didn’t want to give the reward to the honest man.
The deceitful merchant shouted, “Oh man! The money is missing! I had put forty gold coins in the wallet in addition to these four hundred coins!” The man answered with confident calm, “My master merchant, if I intended to steal your money, I would have taken the entire wallet and wouldn’t have come to return it to you.”
Here everyone realized the man was telling the truth and the merchant was lying. Despite that, the merchant continued shouting, cursing the man to make it seem as if he had actually stolen from him. But the wise ruler realized the greedy merchant didn’t want to give the man the promised reward. He ordered him, saying, “Come near me and give me the money wallet.” The merchant executed the order immediately.
The ruler asked him if he was sure that the amount that had been in his wallet was eighty and not forty coins. The merchant answered in the affirmative. The ruler said, “Why then didn’t you tell me about this before? Then that wallet doesn’t belong to you, for it has only four hundred.”
Then the ruler raised his voice, saying, “This wallet doesn’t belong to the merchant. I also lost a money wallet a few days ago, and it contained four hundred coins only, nothing else. This means it’s my wallet.” The merchant was speechless and didn’t know what to say. The ruler turned to the man who had brought the money wallet.
He said to him, “Oh honest man, we have a saying that he who gives to others is the generous person, not the rich. Because you brought the money wallet here without anything missing from it, it’s a reward for you for your good deed.” He gave the man the reward with what was in it. As for the greedy merchant, he returned empty-handed as punishment for his greed, and became the laughingstock of all the city’s residents for a long time.