r. Cheap

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

The Baron and Lady Angela of Alpine Castle grew up together in Lilliland and their tutor was a university teacher named Professor Hamblin. Professor Hamblin was the Baron’s chief advisor on matters of state as well as a philosopher of life.

One story that the Professor favored was that of Walter Johnson who had developed a reputation as being Mr. Cheap.

Mr. Johnson hired workers to do many of the buildings in Lilliland because his bids on the jobs were hard to beat. But the way he treated the skilled craftsmen that he hired was not very nice. He was very cheap and treated the craftsmen as common laborers. Mr. Cheap scrimped and saved every dollar that he could and even denied himself good food in order to save money. He said that he saved all his money so he could afford to buy some very attractive land to build a great and lovely house that would be the envy of all the citizens of Lilliland.

The years went by and Mr. Cheap bought the land and built the very lovely house that was the envy of all Lilliland. But along the way, his reputation for being a very difficult man to work with overshadowed his achievements.

Professor Hamblin contintinued with the story.

Mr. Cheap finished the lovely house and on the day he was going to move into his dream house he had a party. He invited all the people who had worked for him, and their wives and families, to attend this joyous occasion. He sent out 100 invitations to all his former employees.

The evening of the event arrived and everything was ready, the food, the music, the drinks, the waiters and waitresses… just everything. But, to his surprise, no one showed up to attend this joyous occasion. Why, he asked, did no one attend? His friend said that it was because on the way to saving all the money for this house, he was cruel and selfish to his employees.

The party had no guests so the staff was dismissed very early. This was because you cannot have a celebration by yourself. Mr. Cheap turned to walk into his home to spend his first night in his dream house when he stopped at the front door and fell dead of a heart attack.

Professor Hamblin explained that the moral of the story was to work hard and also celebrate each day with respect and kindness to one’s fellowman.