Once upon a time, there was a miser. The miser loved gold, but he hated to spend it. He just liked looking at it and keeping it for himself.
One day the miser decided to bury his gold. He dug a big hole in his garden. Then he carefully put his gold in the hole.
"Gold, you are all mine!" the miser said. "No one except me knows where you are!"
The miser laughed and did a funny dance.
Every day the miser went back to his garden. He dug up his treasure and stared at the beautiful gold coins. He watched them shine in the sunlight.
And every day the miser said the same thing. "Gold, no one except me knows where you are!" Then he laughed and did a funny dance.
One day a thief was passing by the miser's garden. He heard the miser laughing.
"Why is that miser so happy?" the thief wondered.
He peeked over the fence. He saw the miser hiding his gold, saying, "Gold, no one except me knows where you are!"
"Now I know where your gold is too!" the thief thought. He grinned greedily and rubbed his hands together.
That night the thief returned to the garden with a shovel. Quickly he dug up the gold and hurried off.
The next day the miser went to his garden. He dug and dug in the ground but found no gold.
"What? No! This cannot be!" the miser shouted. "My gold is gone!"
Several villagers heard the miser shouting, and came running.
"What happened?" a woman asked.
"My gold! Someone stole all my gold!" the miser cried.
"Where was it?" the woman asked.
"I buried it here in the garden," the miser explained. "Every day I dug it up and looked at it. And every day I put it right back in this hole."
The villagers shook their heads sadly. They all knew the man was a miser. They all knew he loved gold.
"Did you ever take any gold out?" an old man asked. "Did you ever spend it?"
"Oh no! I only came to look at it," the miser said. "Then I buried it again."
"So?" The old man shrugged. "You can still come and look at this empty hole every day. You didn't spend your riches. That's the same thing as having no riches at all!"