The Rich Man's Reward

One Easter, a long time ago, a miser was sitting down to eat a hardboiled egg when a beggar came up to him and asked him if he would share the egg with him.

“Please”, the beggar implored, “I have not eaten for days and I am so hungry”.

“Very well”, said the Miser, a wicked smile crossing his lips, “I will share the egg with you”.

And then, peeling the egg, he gave the beggar the shell,

“You may have that half of the egg”, he said, “And I will have the half inside”.

But then , suddenly, to his astonishment the beggar transformed into an angel dressed in long garments woven from threads of blazing light.

Terrified, the Miser sank to his knees.

“Oh, please!”, he begged, “Oh, great one, have mercy”.

“Mercy?”, asked the angel, laughing, “But, mortal, I only wish to reward you for your kindness”.

“Reward me?”, asked the Miser, surprised and a little bemused.

“Yes”, said the angel and then, with a flap of one of her snow white wings, the being of celestial light made a giant box appear that was filled to overflowing with gold and silver, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds, “As a reward for your kindness I will share this box full of treasure with you. You may have half of it”.

Now, looking down at all the sparkling gold and glittering jewels, the Misers heart leapt,

“Why there must be a fortune in there”, he thought to himself, “And though I would rather have it all I would settle for half”.

“Oh thank you!”, said the Miser to the Angel, grabbing up an armful of the treasure, “Thank you”.

But then, suddenly, all the gold and jewels disappeared; even those hugged tightly within the Misers arms.

“I don’t understand”, said the Miser, confused, “I thought you said I could have half of this box full of treasure”.

“Oh you can”, said the angel laughing and disappearing as she laughed so that all that was left of her was the sound of her voice, “I will take the half that was inside and you may have the box”.

Angrily, the miser shook his fist and cursed the laughing angel but, because he was too much of a miser to throw anything away, kept the empty box.

Now a year passed by and another Easter came around and the Miser was sitting at home eating a feast of hardboiled eggs; at least a dozen were set before him,  when a beggar came knocking at the door.

And, answering the door, at first the Miser was angry with the beggar but then he remembered, from the Easter before, the angel who had been a beggar in disguise and he reckoned to himself,

“Perhaps this beggar is the angel testing me again and if I give him a whole egg then the angel will reward me fully with both treasure and chest”.

And, so, with a magnanimous sound in his voice, the Miser went into his house, took one of the dozen hard boiled eggs and gave it to the beggar.

“Oh thank you”, said the beggar taking the egg, “You’re so kind”.

But then the beggar simply walked away down the street and the Miser, realizing that the beggar was not the angel in disguise and that he would not be rewarded, cursed the beggar and called him a thief.

However, just at that moment the beggar peeled the egg that the miser had given him and, to his amazement, inside the shell was an egg made of gold.

“Oh god bless you!”, shouted the beggar to the Miser, holding up the golden egg, “For being so generous”.

Now the Miser heard the angel laugh once more and, though he peeled all the other eleven eggs on his table and bought and boiled and peeled a hundred more, the Miser never again found an egg that was gold.

But did the Miser ever learn his lesson? Did he become more generous? No, as with most greedy rich people, he didn’t learn a thing but he never ate another egg for as long as he lived.