The Man and the Vault

A man in the East had continued reverses in trade, and owed a great many people large sums of money. So they took away all his property, leaving him in a very poor and miserable condition.

As he was hard pressed by hunger, he borrowed a spade of a neighbour, and dug up the stones in the pavement of his house that he might sell them and buy some food with the money. While turning up the stones in a room adjoining the garden, he found a vault underground, with a great chest in it.

He opened the chest, and found a vast amount of treasure, with a scroll. He poured forth his thanks to Heaven for the boon, and, opening the scroll, found these three sentences inscribed in letters of gold: (1) "Poverty leads to wealth." (2) "Misery leads to happiness." (3) "To them that trust in Heaven's power relief may come at the very last hour."