A magic coin

A boy was walking along the way as he spotted a one-penny coin lying on the ground. "Well," he thought, "a penny is also money!" He took it and put it in his wallet. And then he began to think further: "What would I do if I found a thousand rubles? I would buy gifts to my father and mother!". Hardly had he thought so as he felt his wallet having grown thicker. He looked into it, and there was a thousand rubles.

"How strange,” the boy was surprised. There was one coin, and now – as much as a thousand rubles! Well, what would I do if I found ten thousand rubles? I would buy a cow and feed my parents with milk! ". He looked inside the wallet found there already ten thousand rubles! "Miracles!”, the lucky fellow was delighted. "What if I found a hundred thousand rubles?" Then I would buy a house, get married and settle in a new house with my old parents! ". Quickly did he open the wallet – and here you are – there was as much as a hundred thousand rubles!

Then he began to meditate: "Maybe I’d better not take my father and mother to the new house? My wife might not like them. May they live in their old house. And to keep a cow is troublesome. I'd better buy a goat. And I will not buy a lot of gifts: the expenditures are big, anyway."

At once he felt that his wallet had become light and airy! He got frightened, glimpsed inside it – but there's only one-penny coin there...

Read also

The saint against the system: Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”

The story of an Austrian farmer who refused Hitler and went to the block, repeating the feat of John the Baptist. Why the voice of conscience matters more than the instinct for self-preservation.

Water for the heart: Why Exupéry wrote about Baptism without knowing it

Right now, all of us are trudging through a desert of exhaustion. We reread The Little Prince on the eve of Theophany to understand why we truly need Living Water.

A shrine in your pocket: Why Christians wore lead flasks around their necks

They walked thousands of miles on foot, risking their lives. Why was a cheap lead flask of oil valued more than gold – and how did it become the prototype of our modern “go-bag”?

Strangers in their own palaces: Why Eliot called Christmas a “bitter agony”

The holidays are over – and what remains is the hangover of everyday life. We unpack T. S. Eliot’s piercing poem about how hard it is to return to “normal” when you have seen God.

God in a “krysania”: Why, for Antonych, Bethlehem moved to the Carpathians

Lemko Magi, a golden nut–Moon in Mary’s palms, and the Lord riding in a sleigh. How Bohdan-Ihor Antonych turned Christmas from a biblical story into a personal experience for every Ukrainian.

Stories of the Early Church: The place of the laity

In antiquity, a community could drive out its bishop. Why did we lose that right and turn into powerless “extras”? This is the story of the great turning point of the third century.