There was once a shoemaker who always in a good mood. He was so happy
that he sang from morning to night. There were always children standing at
his window & listening to him sing. Next door to him lived a very rich man. He spent
entire nights counting his money, and then went to bed in the morning, but could not sleep because of the shoemaker's singing. So he invited the shoemaker to come over & see him. To his great surprise, the rich man gave him a bag full of gold coins. He counted it all carefully in his house with the children watching him. It was so much that the shoemaker was afraid to let it out of his sight
and so he took it along at night. But he is still nervous that he dug a deep hole in the garden & hid it there. He was so preoccupied with the money that he never got back
to making shoes. Nor could he sing anymore. He was so worried that he could not produce a single musical note. Worst of all, the children did not come around to visit him any longer. Finally, the shoemaker was so unhappy that he dug up the money & hurried back to his neighbor with it. "Please take this money back," he said. "Worry about it has made me sick, and even my friends do not come to see me anymore. I would rather be a shoemaker like i was before.---WILLI TROCIO
