I was graced today with a story given to me orally. I don’t know the author or source of the story. I didn’t look it up .. No idea if it’s a book or a well known story. I only know that it was delivered in a way that left an impact on me.
The story speaks about a king who sat on a throne and one day watched his floors being mopped. He asked the person mopping the floor.. “Why are you so happy mopping the floor”.
The mopper explained he loved the simple life and a simple job with no worries.. with a great family and nothing to bother him.
This disturbed the king so much he asked one of his advisors to find out if it’s true his life is so great. of all the moppers in the kingdom he was the only happy one.
So the king’s advisor created a plan to entrap the mopper. He left 49 gold coins on the worker’s doorstep.
The mopper finds the gold coins and tries to determine if i’ts real gold. He bites the gold. He then tells his family they have gold coins.
Then the mopper stops puzzled. He goes why are there only 49 coins? he turns the bag of gold upside down.. looks all over the place for the 50th coin.
He shouts out: There has to be a 50th coin!
The mopper returns to work the next day to mop the floor. The king watches the mopper and speaks to his advisor.
Hmmm.. says the king, the mopper no longer seems happy. The advisor quite happy with his work tells the king he can now happily relax.
THE END
The 50th gold coin tells a story of a man who was happy with nothing who later received received wealth only to be obsessed with more money in a pursuit that ends in him not being happy at all.