An old beggar passed through an old village. He knocked on the door of a big beautiful house, with a tall barn and a large iron padlock on the gate. In this house lived a man, known in the village for his miserliness : he never helped people, even though he was very rich.
'Please give me some meat or milk?' - asked the beggar.
The miser replied roughly:
'No, I can't! Go away!'
'Maybe you can give me some wheat or beans?' - kept asking the beggar, forced by hunger to humiliate himself.
'I don't have anything!' - said the miser.
'Then give me a piece of bread, and I will be grateful.' - said the beggar.
'Go away, I don't have bread!' - was the miser's reply.
'At least give me some water? I'm very thirsty!'
'I don't have water.' - screamed the miser.
Then said the beggar :
'Oh, my son, why are you sitting here then? Stand up and start begging food from the good people. You are even poorer than I am!
