There is a fable about a man who was reasonably well off, yet there were still so many things he wanted and couldn’t afford. Each night he’d go to bed and dream about these things. His dreams made him restless and unhappy. But one night he had a new dream. In it, a spirit appeared and told the man that if he went down to the river the next morning, he would encounter an old monk carrying a rock – and that once this happened the man would find himself rich beyond his imagination. He would be able to get everything he ever wanted.
The next day, the man woke up excited and raced down to the river. Sure enough, a monk was sitting by the water’s edge. The man nervously approached the monk and asked, “ Do you have a rock you can give me?”
The monk replied, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a rock. I found it just the other day.” Reaching into his pack, he said, “Here, take it, I don’t really need it.” The man stared at the rock in disbelief, for the monk had just handed him the largest diamond he had ever seen. He raced back home with his new possession and hid it where he thought no one could find it. He was ecstatic. “Now I’m rich,” he thought.
But over the next few days the man found he had great difficulty sleeping. He tossed and turned. His thoughts were continually on the diamond. What if I lose it? Or what if someone tries to steal it? The man felt more unsettled than he ever had before.
Finally, overcome with anxiety and exhausted from insomnia, he returned to the river with the diamond. “Take it back,” he told the monk. “It’s not what I really want. What I want is something else you have – the ability to give such a beautiful and valuable thing away. For that, and only that, is true wealth.”
Borrowed