There was once a peasant who
led Aard and miserable life. Though he worked in his' field from morning till
night, he was very poor. Although he tried to make his life better, he suffered
for many years.
One morning, after he had
recited his morning prayers, the peasant said, "Lord, all these years I
have honoured Thee and I have never done anything wicked. Yet, though I work
from sunrise till sunset I am still very poor. Lord, please give me some
wealth to lighten my hardship. Put some treasure under my chimney. Then I will know that it has come from
you alone."
After
murmuring this prayer the peasant went to work in his field. A few clays went by
but nothing unusual happened. Every morning the peasant looked in the
fire-place under the chimney but he saw only ashes. He did not give up hope and
repeated his prayer each day.
One afternoon while he was ploughing his field, the peasant tore
his sleeve on a bush. He did not want
this to happen again so the peasant dug up the bush. As he pulled it out he saw something buried in the soft earth under
the roots" quickly the peasant
made the hole bigger and dug deeper, until he saw what was hidden in the
soil. It was a big, earthenware pot. The
peasant took the pot out of the hole and opened the lid. The pot was full of silver coins!
"O Lord!" exclaimed
the peasant, "You have answered my prayer!"
Just as he was about to pick up
the pot and take it home, a thought came into his head.
"No, it is not true that
the Lord has heard my prayers," he said to himself.
"I asked him to put some
treasure in the fire-place under my chimney.
Only if I find the treasure there, then only can I be sure that it is from the
Lord. Therefore this silver is not mine."
So the peasant closed the pot
and put the treasure back in the hole.
When he went home he told his
wife what had happened. When she knew that the peasant had left all that wealth
in his field, his wife grew very angry.
"You stupid fellow! What
does it matter where you find the treasure? It is silver coins and can help us
escape from this poverty. Go back to the field and bring the pot here!"
But
whatever she said, the peasant refused to get the silver.
He firmly believed that the only
treasure he could keep would
be that found under his chimney.
When his wife knew that she could not
change his mind she was furious. She
went to her neighbour and told him about the pot full of silver coins.
"Please, dear
neighbour," she said, "go to our field and take that pot and let us
share the treasure."
The neighbour was overjoyed
when he heard her story. Although it was now dark, he went at once to get the
treasure. Holding a lighted oil lamp in his
hand he went to the field. It
was easy for him to find the freshly dug hole. The man took the pot out and
opened the lid. But what a shock he got! Instead of silver coins he saw poisonous snakes slithering and wriggling in the pot. Quickly he put the
lid back on again.
"What a mean and nasty woman my neighbour's wife is!" he muttered to
himself. "What a horrible trick
she has played on me. If I had put my hand in the pot, I would be dead
now. Perhaps she wanted that to happen. Perhaps she is angry with me for one
reason or another. But I'll teach her a lesson! "
The angry man picked up the pot
and carried it home. He waited until midnight when his neighbours were fast
asleep. Then he climbed onto the roof of their house and threw the pot down the
chimney into the fire-place beneath it: Then he returned home satisfied with
what he had done.
The next
morning, after saying his prayers, the peasant looked as usual in his fire-place. There, among
the black ashes was the earthenware pot he
had dug up in his field the afternoon before. It was broken into many
pieces and among the pot fragments he saw countless silver coins!
"Praised be the
Lord!" the peasant exclaimed in delight. He knelt down and raising his
hands in joy, he said, "Lord, now I can take this treasure, for
you have put it in my fire-place as I begged You to. Now I know that this
wealth is really meant for me. How can I
thank You?"
In this
way, God rewarded someone who trusted in Him.
