After his injury in the war, his leaders told the soldier, “thanks for your service, but we don’t need you anymore.” The soldier was sent home, without much help, or rehab, and no occupation, that was for sure. So he got work doing odd jobs for an economist; some days he’d dig holes, other days he’d pick up garbage at the side of the road and sell it to the economist; it was just enough to live on, but not enough to improve his situation.
Then one day the economist said, “I have this blue light I need you to bring me, and if you do that, I’ll make sure you’re set up comfortably for life. The only thing is it’s kind of hard to get at — you’ll have to crawl through a tunnel to an underground cave to find it.”
The financial wizard didn’t mention the underground dwellers who lived off rats, and fungus, and the occasional servant that the he had sent down in his previous attempts to recover the light. But the soldier had been trained in battle, and he brought his shovel with him, so he was able to defend himself, and find the blue light.
It was easy to see in the darkness of the cave; its ethereal glow could be seen from the far end, like a dawn. And when he got there, he was delighted to discover that it held the secrets of the economist, and his leaders, and what’s more, all the people who had any kind of wealth or power. It was a treasure trove of information.
When he got to the surface, the economist asked him if he found the blue light, and the soldier said, “no, sorry, it wasn’t down there.”
So the economist fired him, but the soldier didn’t care, because now he knew where the economist kept his hoard of gold. Which he took.
The soldier could have retired comfortably on that, but he was just getting started.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Click here if the embedded player doesn’t work.