The rich man in the torrent

【Short Story】

After several days of heavy rain, the flash flood suddenly broke out, and in the blink of an eye, the torrent flooded the town. The townspeople hurriedly climbed into their own boats and paddled off into the distance.

At the tail end of the mighty fleet, a rich man was ordering his servants to row quickly while quickly fastening his money bag. Suddenly, a big wave swooped in, and the rich man's ship overturned. The servants fluttered a few times in the great waves and sank to the bottom of the water. The rich man clutched his money bag in one hand and a plank of wood that was drifting past him with the other. Leaning on the buoyancy of the planks, he struggled to swim forward, and when he was about to exhaust himself, a young man rowing a small boat loomed in the distance.

"Help! Help me! The rich man shouted busily, "Boy, hurry up and paddle this way." ”

The youth obviously heard the rich man's "help", only to see him wave his arms and paddle up the oar with force. But the flood was so rapid that no matter how hard he tried, the boat moved very slowly.

"Hurry up!" The rich man shouted eagerly, "If you save me, I'll give you 100 gold coins!" ”

When the young man heard this, he rowed the boat harder, but unfortunately the speed of the boat was still slow.

Watching the turbulence get stronger and stronger, the rich man shouted again: "Hurry up, I will give you 300 gold coins!" ”

Somehow, after shouting these words, the young man's boat seemed to be slower.

"500!" The rich man, who was almost unable to support it, raised the price tag again.

In a minute, the boat was about to reach the rich man's side, but the youth suddenly stopped rocking.

"I'll give you 1,000 gold coins!" Please hurry up! The rich man choked on a mouthful of muddy water and shouted.

Unfortunately, before the young man could start the boat again, a fierce wave swept the rich man and his money bag away.

The decadent youth immediately collapsed into the boat and cried, crying and saying, "I thought that if I slower I would get some more gold coins, who knew that the result would be like this!" I was going to save him, but how did I become a victim of him?! At the same time, he felt a little puzzled, "When I only have 'righteousness' in my heart and no 'profit', why does he suddenly say to give me money?" Did I hurt him or did the money hurt him? ”

【Great Truth】

Money is the measure of human desires, and by taking the scale as a measure of things, and building selfish desires on it, man becomes a greedy person. Money tempts people to be vulgar, and when it is conventionally believed that money is omnipotent, people become fools. Both kinds of people harm others and themselves.