THE STATUE
Once there lived a man among the hills who possessed a statue wrought by an ancient master. It lay at his door face downward and he was not mindful of it.
One day there passed by his house a man from the city, a man of knowledge, and seeing the
statue he inquired of the owner if he would sell it.
The owner laughed and said, "And pray who would want to buy that dull and dirty stone?"
The man from the city said, "I will give you this piece of silver for it."
And the other man was astonished and delighted.
The statue was removed to the city, upon the back of and elephant. And after many moons the
man from the hills visited the city, and as he walked the streets he saw a crowd before a shop, and a man with a loud voice was crying, "Come ye in and behold the most beautiful, the most wonderful statue in all the world. Only two
silver pices to look upon this most marvelous work of a master."
Thereupon the man from the hills paid two silver pieces and entered the shop to see the statue
that he himself had sold for one spice of silver.
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