Once, in a small town, lived a man who worked throughout his lifetime to amass wealth. The purpose was, he claimed, to guarantee his children were supported after his death and with no need to work to keep their lifestyles. In doing so, he spared no effort. He lived very simply, lacking, not rarely, even the most necessary things, in his struggle to save even more. The family had no comfort. The wife worked hard all

day and sometimes feeling tired, she would ask:

	- Manny, I feel sick, weak, I feel pain throughout my body. Could we get someone to help me with the housework? - No way, Ally. Those maids charge a fortune! We can not spend that kind of money. At other times, his daughter, who needed to buy clothes or shoes, dared to ask him for money.
Manny would retort angrily:

- Do you think money grow on trees? I can not pay for your luxuries.

And the daughter would walk away, sad and weary, dreaming of the day when she would leave the house to have a better life.

Or it would be the son who needed to buy school supplies, and would find the father irreducible:

- Earlier this year I already bought you everything you needed. I will not spend a penny more!

And the son, nonconformist, would leave brooding over his disappointment.

And so he acted with everyone. The beggars who knocked on his door begging for food, would be expelled without mercy by Manny.

When those responsible for a charity group dared to ask him to help with their work for the needy, Manny reported a series of difficulties with the family, excessive spending, unexpected bills, and concluded:

- Unfortunately, I can not help!

	Time passed. Manny managed to accumulate a huge fortune that he always kept hidden, greedily. And because he did not trust anyone, not even a bank, he hid everything inside his old mattress. He wanted to have his treasure always close at hand, within his sights.
The wife complained of back pain, suggesting that they would at least change the mattress, old and patched, almost unusable. Manny, angry, with his finger in the air, would say:

- Never! Do not mess with "my" mattress. I like it the way it is!

The son, not withstanding such misery, left home and went on to live with a friend but went astray, becoming an alcoholic. The daughter married the first man who came into her life, in order to get rid of poverty, and was not happy. Only Ally continued with her husband, since she had no one to turn to or nowhere to go.

One day, Manny felt sick. He was taken to a hospital, where he eventually passed away.

A few days later, Ally and her children met to decide what to do with the belongings of the late Manny.

The first thing they decided to do was to burn the mattress that he so cherished. They took it to the backyard, wondering about the weight, but could never imagine that there was an immense treasure inside.

And Manny, on the other side of life, desperate, could not stop them. In terrible pain, he saw the flames consume the efforts of a lifetime.
Manny only then remembered the words of Jesus: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal...”

The treasure he had was not stolen by thieves, or consumed by rust or by worms, but devoured by flames.

The poor man realized he had lost much of life accumulating material things that did not even serve him. He lived miserably, was deprived of comfort, wellness and exhausted at work. And what was worse, with his behaviour, he had lost the love of his family.

As for the treasures of heaven, which are imperishable, he had not bothered to acquire any. He sadly realized now, how much he could have done for his children, giving them a comfortable life, facilitating their education and preparing them to be worthy citizens, workers, and useful to society.

Manny, for the first time, remembered to pray to God. And, deeply sorry, begged the Lord to grant him another opportunity to return to Earth, in a new body to repair the damage he had done.
 

Leo Tolstoy
 

(Story psychographed by Celia X. de Camargo on 19/06/1998.)