Money Lost,
Money Gained
by Hu Zhi
Richard was in
his early thirties but, with his surprisingly
grey hair, he looked older than his age.
Three years
ago on his way back home from work, it started to
rain. A moment later it was pouring with heavy
rain so he was forced to run into one of his
neighbours' houses. Soon the rain stopped. He was
about to go back home when the lady said that he
had taken her purse containing lots of money. And
it was all the money she had collected for his
son’s wedding. She said that he had been the
only person that had seen her purse. Although he
explained that he had never seen her purse, she
came repeatedly to his house to shout for the
money. To make matters worse, his house caught
fire and was burnt down. So, most of the
villagers drew the conclusion that he had taken
the money. They forced him to give back the money.
“Oh, no,
I didn’t see the money, let alone take it!”
he swore. “Please believe me!”
The
lady’s frequent disturbances had irritated
his wife a lot. So just before the New Year she
left home, never to return.
Now he had
become quite notorious. He felt tired and
hopeless.
“If I had
that much money, I would return it to her!”
he begged the lady. “I would rather buy back
my life with the money! But where could I get so
much money!”
The next year the lady troubled him more often.
“Believe
me. I didn’t pick up your money. If you stop
disturbing me, I will go and earn money to return
to you!” he promised.
Later on he
went up to the big city. However, the lady said
that he had fled with her money.
And three
years later, Richard came home, with the money to
return to the lady. When he had handed the money
to her, she asked him for the interest. He
apologized to her, saying that he had no more
money with him.
Again, he went
up to town. And two months saw him return the
interest to her. Soon after his return, an idea
came to him.
“Why not
change the dry pond into a pool to keep fish in
the village?” he said to himself. And soon
he started to work on it. And to his great
astonishment, while working one day he found a
purse containing a large sum of money, enough for
a son’s wedding. He showed it to the
villagers and the lady as well. She wept sadly.
“It is
nothing serious. Now you know I didn’t take
your purse.” he smiled. “I am sorry,
but I will go back home, for tomorrow I will have
to go back to town again.”
And at the end of the next year, he came back
home in his car, with a beautiful young
girlfriend.
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