The Greedy Man and the lost Purse

Once there lived a woodcutter who grew blind with old age. 

The woodcutter had a son who looked after him very well. Once as the son was carrying a load of wood through the forests he found a missing purse in the forest.

The son opened the purse and found ten pieces of silver inside it. 

The son was very happy. He brought the purse back and gave it to his father. “We will not tell anyone about it. We will use this money for ourselves.”

However the father was not happy with the suggestion. “We make an honest living. Go to the head man of the village and give the purse back to the head man so that he could find out who owns the purse and give it back to them.” 

The son realized that his father's words were practical and decided to hand over the purse to the head man. 

The very next day the son took the purse with the ten pieces of silver and went and met the head man. 

The head man looked into the purse and saw the 10 pieces of silver. 

No sooner had he kept it on his table, a worried looking man came to the headman's home. 

“I went to the woods. And there I lost my purse.” The worried looking man said immediately. 

A second later, the worried looking man saw the purse which was lying on the headman’s table. 

He looked at the woodcutter’s son and realized what had happened here. 

The headman studied the worried-looking man who was now relaxed and looking slightly smug. “How many pieces of silver does your purse have?” 

The man was actually a very rich man and when he realized that his purse had been found, the rich man became greedy. He nodded at the head man. “There were twenty pieces of silver inside the purse.” 

The rich man was sure that now the head man would ask the man who had brought the purse here to hand over ten more silver pieces which should have been in the purse. That was the reason he had lied to the headman.

The head man looked into the purse and then handed over the purse to the woodcutter’s son. “I am afraid your purse has not been found. Because this man came here trying to look for the owner, I thought that this could be your purse. But this is not your purse because this purse has 10 pieces of silver.” The head man studied the rich man. “And now I am convinced that we shall not find the owner of this purse. So I am going to ask the woodcutter’s son to keep the purse and the silver pieces because he found it.”

Adapted from Tibetan folk tales