Gold's Gloom

A mouse named Gold lived beneath a hermit's cell, feasting nightly on the leftovers the hermit hid away. However high the hermit hung his bowl, Gold leaped up to it with ease — a strength that amazed everyone who saw it.

One night a guest of the hermit noticed this and reasoned aloud: a creature does not gain such daring for no reason — he must be living near a hidden treasure, for the nearness of wealth alone can make the timid bold.

The guest and the hermit traced Gold's trail to his burrow and dug there, uncovering the very hoard of gold that Gold had been living above for years without ever knowing it consciously — only feeling its strange power.

The moment the gold was carried away, Gold tried his usual leap and fell flat on the floor. His own followers mocked him and deserted him, for they too had only respected the strength his nearness to wealth had given him.

Ashamed and powerless, Gold reflected through the night: it was never courage that had made him bold, only the comfort of gold nearby — and a creature who measures his own worth by his possessions will always be at the mercy of losing them.

In time Gold made peace with this truth. He stopped chasing the smell of treasure and found that real steadiness — the kind no one can dig up and carry away — comes only from within.