A wealthy man remained engrossed in his business affairs day and night.
He could not even find the leisure to speak with his wife and children.
Living right next door was a laborer who earned a single rupee a day and, with that modest sum,
lived a life of absolute contentment.
At night,
he, his wife, and their children would laugh and converse with great affection.
Observing this, the merchant's wife felt deep sorrow within her heart,
thinking, "This laborer is far better off than we are;
at least he lives his domestic life with joy."
One day, she confided her profound distress to her husband, asking,
"What is the use of all this wealth and fortune if, while trapped within it,
one forfeits all the other joys of life?"
The merchant replied,
"You are right in what you say,
but the snare of greed is such that anyone caught in its clutches becomes consumed by a ceaseless craving for money, day and night.
Once this noose of greed tightens around a person's neck,
it is nearly impossible for them to break free.
If this laborer, too,
were to fall into the trap of chasing money, his life would become just as dreary and joyless as mine."
The merchant's wife suggested,
"We ought to put this to the test."
The merchant agreed.
He tied ninety-nine rupees into a small bundle and tossed it into the laborer's house late that night.
The next morning,
the laborer woke up,
spotted the bundle lying in his courtyard,
and opened it.
Upon seeing the money,
he was overjoyed.
He called his wife, and together they counted the cash;
there were exactly ninety-nine rupees.
They then began to reason: previously, out of the one rupee he earned daily,
they would spend eight annas on sustenance and save the remaining eight annas. The very next day, they saved another eight annas.
Soon, they developed an insatiable urge to keep increasing their wealth.
They began to eat less and work longer hours—even at night—so that they could save money more rapidly and watch their fortune grow.
From her terrace, the merchant's wife would observe every detail of the laborer's life in the humble dwelling below. Within a short time,
that family—
which had previously lived a life of great joy despite possessing nothing—lost all its happiness.
Trapped in the cycle of accumulating wealth and ensnared by the obsession with that "ninety-nine," they now spent their days and nights in ceaseless anxiety and distress.
It was then that the merchant's wife realized that the very desire to accumulate and hoard is a fiend that renders the lives of everyone
—from the laborer to the wealthy merchant—both futile and burdensome.