THE WEALTH OF THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD AS AT TODAY; REVEALED BY A MAN HE SEES AS BEGGAR

I've rated life as a song which is best enjoyed when there is less of stress; so I knew how to flow with its rhymes.
I knew all life's twists and turns and I've learnt how to cross my t's and got my i's dotted, in the early years of my life.

I had my beginnings of charity at home, in fact I was born and kingly bred in a land of impeccable royalty.

My heart housed complacency, the greatest of its kind you could find. I could proudly say I was well-off.
All around me was impregnable fortress of love and care. No one dared flick a flinty finger at me!
And I never was part of any clique, because we've got no social finger print in common.
I had enough to eat and some crunchy crumbs for every beggar who cared to knock at my gate.

My heart's wish was the world's command. Everything I wanted, I had with the exception of all the things I never needed. I grew myself into a self-made man. I loved the way I lived my life!

One day, I decided to make the whole world know my worth, so I called the greatest among the valuers to help.

He got to me and payed his humble homage as everyone would, and the rhythm of unparalleled importance engulfed my being. Everything in me answered to the tickling touch of what I call "Royalty in its prime." I was feeling on top of the world!

I borrowed my throat a stream of saliva as I couldn't lay my hands on the best of wine for such memorable moment; the world's best wine had turned stale to my esophagus!

Perpetual menace was what I felt every being, through which carbon dioxide comes not, called me; and it's nothing but a scintillating truth.
I breathe in and out, put up a charming smile and adjusted myself on my adorable and priceless chair. I touched a side of my royal apparel and that sent a message through my spine. I told myself "You are going to hear a verdict, so beef up your ego."

The one I have hired, to whom I said should ask whatever he needed, I learnt he never failed.
He was someone living close to me. His name is REALITY. I have known him to be a beggar. My definition of a beggar is the one who does not have more than enough.

Again, he paid his homage,
to the only seemingly living sage,
and I sensed he was about to ask for his wage,
which I had to the fullest of gauge.
He said, "Sir, you asked for what my pay would be and here is it: I only need you to give me the air you'll take in for the next five minutes, by holding your nose until the set time elapsed."

"What couldn't I possibly do?" I questioned myself. I made it quick by asking one of my errand boys to do that for me. The one I had assigned for that, was one I had fed so big like a sheep for a slaughter. I had only taught and used him for the "DO" actions.

He got hold of my nose with his right fingers, with his palm covering my mouth, too firm that I made up my mind I was going to kill him after the assignment. Not struggling much, I told myself I was about to add an experience to my CV.

Was I wrong? No. I really had a great and unforgettable one: Within a minute, I had seen myself begging for my life from the one who grew up in my arms- the one whose fate I could have determined in a second. Like Jack Daniel wished he had one last drink before he died, I wished I had one in-breathe of oxygen, for I was dying.

Then, I could see REALITY ordering him to stop and he did. As I gasped, I looked at him and faintly said, "So what if there was nobody to save me from your hands?" and he said, "Then you would have died." "Death?" I questioned and he said "Yes, Death"

This was a word I never thought could be used against me. I became speechless, and I was watching helplessly.

After all said and done, REALITY told me,
"Indeed you have all in the world and you lacked nothing. I searched for anyone In the world up to your standard and I found none.

You are a priceless gem! Just that, your life, as I just discovered, is not in the totality of the wealth you amassed, but 'right inside your nostrils.'

And when I searched and searched my database, to get a word that fits your description, all adjectives failed me. I looked at all the verbs and they were like the wrong pegs inside the round holes.

At last, I found one noun to help, and it is...
V¤A¤N¤I¤T¤Y.
"Vanity?" I struggled to argue and he said "Yes, Vanity, Chief!"

Just Immediately, I saw myself being unwrapped in the feeling of priceless self-worth I had caged myself in. I began quickly to see me, indeed as vanity! He was right, I was vanity. I thought I had all and never knew everything would pass away just in a moment. Pass away when the breadth in me is no more and my nostrils could not help exchange the air.

"Merciful Lord, I humble myself before you" was the sentence I turned into a chorus and I began to sing along. Like a baby longing for the arrival of its parents, I wept.

If you are like me, that you think you have everything, Remember that, one day the owner of your life would ask for it and what account will you give?
I plead, "Humble yourself before Him today."
He gives grace to the humble!