Once upon a time, there was a foolish boy who had a bag full of beautiful marbles.  Now this boy was quite proud of his marbles. In fact, he thought so much of them  that he would neither play with them himself nor would he let anyone else play  with them. He only took them out of the bag in order to count and admire them;  they were never used for their intended purpose. Yet that boy carried that coveted
 bag of marbles everywhere he went. 

 Well, there was also a wise boy who wished he could have such a fine bag of  marbles. So this boy worked hard and earned money to purchase a nice bag to  hold marbles. Even though he had not yet earned enough with which to purchase any marbles, he had faith and purchased the marble bag. He took special care of  the bag and dreamed of the day it would contain marbles with which he could play and share with his friends. 

 Alas, the foolish boy with all of the marbles didn't take care of the marble bag itself, and one day the bag developed a hole in the bottom seam. Still, he paid no attention and, one by one, the marbles fell out of the bag. 

 It didn't take long, once the foolish boy's marble bag developed a hole, for the wise boy to begin to find those beautiful marbles, one at a time, lying unnoticed on the ground. And, one by one, he added them to his marble bag. The wise boy thus gained a fine bag full of marbles in no time at all. This boy played with the marbles and shared them with all of his friends. And he always took special care of the bag so he wouldn't lose any. 

 And what about the foolish boy? Because he was selfish and careless, he lost all of his marbles and was left holding the bag. 

 Kimberly B. Southall