There was, not very long ago, a man who was considered to be the most successful millionaire of his time. Here, the word "millionaire" is used in its most extensive meaning, the guy managed to earn and hold billions. The word was that this man was raised by a philosopher, likely his father or an uncle, but little more was know about his childhood or origins. His father, for from now on we will refer to this person as such, taught about two things: poverty and meditation. Such knowledge came from a distant community, most likely situated in an Eastern country. Awareness comes from meditation, and happiness comes from frugality, those were the life principles the kid and millionaire to be was taught. In reality, son and father were different, just as the Sun and the Moon are. But after 20 years of lessons, he, by the time a young man, was encouraged to travel and learn new meditation techniques. In his farewell, the father and philosopher reminded him that frugality was to be kept his most sacred principle. The young man wandered for months, until he found himself already crossing the borders of a neighboring country. A stranger in the land, he managed to learn a new language and customs and to earn his living by doing all sorts of jobs. But he was decided to be frugal, following what he'd been taught. Time passed and he traveled again. And again. His whole life become one of wandering between different places. He discovered that frugality was not going to lead him to a fulfilled life, for he saw many different things that enriched his soul, but most of them which also happened to cost money. He questioned his father's rules, he felt he learned from life that frugality constraints man to a minimum amount of stimuli, and he needed to gain access to new knowledge and perceptions. He started his own quest for philosophical truth, a set of principles which would allow him to make lots of money. Because, he also learned, the money that matters is not the one accumulated, but the one that flows in to our hands and then smoothly flows out from them, being replaced by goods and services we can use. Money itself is nothing but a concept, and certainly nothing more than an agreement. Each bit of knowledge was written by him in paper, and later engraved in sheets of silver, placed into a chest that he always carried with him in his travels. Frugality, he discovered, was a great way to cope with lack of resources. And meditation, the second half of his original set of principles, worked just right when people controlled their impulse to acquire goods, due to financial constraint. But once removed the constraint, meditation will still be possible, albeit usually not perceived as necessary.
Little remained of the philosopher's pupil, for this man had changed a lot. He craved fine goods and good books, and neither of those were free to get. He learned new trades, some of which he didn't really like, at least in the beginning, but despite that, he worked. But money flowed away from him all the time. he realized his interests were offsetting his budget. It was like the ultimate law, and then he believed he will be constrained to never gather a greater amount of money, the one which could allow him to buy the finest goods, cover all his needs, and keep some currency saved for future expenses. He was confused, and frustrated. He even thought that his life was nothing but the pursue of sunset, a task seemingly easy but impossible to be accomplished. So, in what should be considered the second most important day in his life, he took some of his belongings with him and ran to the mountains. And stayed there. He waived to his cravings of goods and culture, he decided to live alone for a long while. In the neighboring cities and towns that had seen him before, the word was that he had become a hermit. He avoided human contact, and so little was known about his life there. Before the eyes of the folk, he turned into a legend. A man with the highest potential to be rich, now the most frugal man on earth. Nobody could be really sure that he was alive, because when someone claimed to have seen him, people considered that a hoax, and so the man to be rich vanished like a ship after sailing from a foggy harbor.
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