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A wealthy man lay on his deathbed. His entire life had been centered around money. As his life ebbed away, he presumed that in the afterlife, money would also be everything. So he gave orders that a purse filled with gold coins be placed inside his casket along with his body. His last wish was carried out.
In the next world it took the bookkeepers a long time to find his name in any of the good books. In fact, it took so long that he got very hungry and thirsty just waiting. He looked around and sure enough, he saw an attractive eatery not far away. “Aha,” he said to himself, “it’s just like I thought. It’s a good thing that brought some money along with me.”
His mouth was already watering as he approached the restaurant. But before he sat down to eat, he was told that the money he had brought along had no value now. In fact, only money that was of any value now was the money he had given away on earth. The rich man dropped his head in deep thought, but could not remember having given any money away.. So now he had none.
As an Englishman of another stripe let his tombstone explain:
“What I spent I had.
What I kept I lost.
What I gave I have.”
— partly after Leo Tolstoy
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