Fable 344 - The Miser

A miser turned his riches into gold, made an ingot of it and buried it in a certain place where he might be said also to have deposited
his heart and spirit. Every day he went to gloat over his treasure. A labourer watched him and guessed what he was up to and,
digging up the ingot, carried it off. Sometime later the miser returned to the spot and found the empty hole. He began to moan and tear
out his hair. A passer-by seeing him lamenting thus and learning the reason why, said to him:
‘Don’t despair like that, friend. For when you had all that gold you didn’t really have it. Take a stone and put that in the earth instead,
and imagine that it is your gold. It will serve the same purpose. For, as far as I can see, even when the gold was there you made no use of it.’

This fable shows that, without enjoyment, possession is nothing.