The Greatest Treasure In All The World (Inspiration Point)

Once, many centuries ago, a little girl was born called The Oracle of Gold who had the power to see, just using her mind, where treasure was hidden, whether it be precious metals or jewels or even paper money.

Unfortunately, when news of her amazing talent reached the ears of the king of her country, a cruel and greedy tyrant called Abydos, he ordered that she and her parents be arrested and locked up in a dungeon in his castle and then he told the little girl,

“Now you will work for me and tell me where to find treasure or I will have both your parents taken away and executed”.

And so the poor Oracle, because she loved her parents very much, did as the king ordered and before long the king became the wealthiest man in the whole world.

But even that much wealth could not satisfy the king’s greed and, next, he demanded of the little girl,

“Tell me where to find the greatest treasure in all the world. Tell me now or you know what will become of your parents”.

And so the Oracle closed her eyes and she saw, inside her mind, an island far away where the greatest treasure in all the world was kept and she told the king,

“On the Island of Kalemnos there is a cave of bronze and, inside that, a cave of silver and, inside that, a cave of gold; the golden cave is protected by a phoenix who, every sunset returns to its egg; you must wait till sunset and, when the bird has gone back into its egg, you must boil the egg in a pot then the phoenix will not reawaken and you may enter the golden cave but inside the cave you will encounter a clockwork knight who will try to attack you with his sword. You will not be able to kill him but if you dodge his blows for long enough and run away from him, he will run down and then you must take the key that winds him up out of his back and place it into the keyhole in his chest and
when you turn the key in his chest a door in it will spring open and, inside, you will find the box which contains the greatest treasure in all the world”.

So then the king took a fleet of his finest ships and he sailed to the island of Kalemnos and, on the island, he found a bronze cave and, inside that, a silver cave and, inside that, a golden cave guarded by a giant phoenix and, just as the little girl had instructed, he waited for the sun to set and for the phoenix to go back to its egg and then, dropping the egg into boiling water, he cooked the egg and the phoenix did not reawaken and then he went into the golden cave and there he encountered the clockwork knight who attacked him with his sword but, just as the little girl had instructed him, he didn’t try to fight the knight but just dodged its blows and ran away from it until it ran down and then, taking the key out of its back, he placed it into the hole in its front and turned the key and the chest of the knight sprang open and, inside, just as the little girl had said, was the box containing the greatest treasure in all the world.

“At last”, said the king as he grabbed hold of the box and, throwing it down on the floor of the cave, began to open it.

But, when he looked inside the box, to the kings surprise there was nothing; no gold; no jewels, not even paper money but, suddenly, in his head, the king heard a voice speaking.

It was the voice of the little oracle and she was saying,

“The greatest treasure in all the world is wisdom”.

And, suddenly, like a flash, the king saw that he had been wasting his life pursuing wealth and power and that the meaning of life was to serve not the good of himself but the good of all.

“What are the purpose of wealth and power?”, asked the Oracle, “If not to help the poor and the powerless”.

And, returning home a changed man, he released the little girl and her parents from their dungeon;
he begged their forgiveness and swore, from that day forward, to devote himself to using all of his wealth and power to help the most needy people in his kingdom and other kingdoms, building schools and hospitals that would provide free education and healthcare and establishing a welfare system to help those who were unemployed or too ill to work and when he saw how much good he had done and how he had really improved peoples lives he thought to himself, “This truly is the meaning of life and their happiness, the greatest treasure in all the world”.