July 18

Well-Earned Money Will Never Be Robbed

If ever you lose money all of a sudden, know that it was ill-earned money. Well-earned money will never be robbed. I’ll give you a small illustration.

Once upon a time in a village there lived a milkman who had a few cows. He used to milk them, and take the milk to the next village where he sold it to the restaurant owners. Slowly, slowly he became greedy and started adding water to the milk. Eventually, he doubled the quantity. If he got a gallon of milk, he added a gallon of water, and sold it as two gallons of milk. He did that for a long time.

One day, on his way home, it started raining. He had to cross a river, but the river was in flood. So he tied all the money he had saved—a thousand dollars—into a bundle, and slowly started out across the river. When he was halfway across, he fell into the water. He was a good swimmer, however, and somehow swam to the other shore. As soon as he came out of the water, he checked his money; the bundle was there, but it was all disturbed. He wanted to make sure all the money was still there, so he started counting it. There was only five hundred dollars; he had lost five hundred. And he sat down and cried.

A wise man came by and asked the milkman what was wrong; after hearing what had happened, he said, “Well, you are a milkman aren’t you?” “Yes, yes, I am.” “Don’t worry, you still have your milk money. The water money went with the water. The milk money came with you. Every time you cross the river, you pour a gallon of water into your milk. You took the water from the river, so the river took that five hundred dollars.” 

There is a village proverb, “Milk money is in the milk. Water money is in the water.” Remember that always. It’s not how much you earn, but how you earn it, that’s important. Your money should be very honest, clean money. Then you will always be benefited by it.