The story below is very old. I heard it many
years ago in Peru. However, it is much older than that.
It is said
that, once upon a time, a poor beggar was making his way along a country road.
He had with him a sack with a few small things he had gathered along the way to
keep him alive. Of a sudden, great noise could be heard coming from behind. He
turned and saw a golden carriage with a liveried driver riding high above and
driving six great white horses. Of course he moved to the side of the road to
allow the carriage to pass and lowered his eyes as was prudent. 
When the
carriage arrived beside him it stopped abruptly and no-one less than the King
himself descended from the carriage. Striding over to the poor, shaking beggar,
he addressed him: “Could you perhaps be so kind as to give me something?” The beggar was astounded and more than a
little perplexed. “My Lord, how can you, the King and Lord of all these lands,
ask of me, a poor beggar, that I should give you something. I have so little
that I can barely find enough to keep me alive." But, the King merely regarded him kindly.
So the poor
beggar reached down into his sack and from the very bottom pulled out a grain
of wheat. “My Lord, out of my poverty, I offer you this small token. Please
accept the little that I am able to offer.” The King bowed, held out his hand and
accepted the grain with a large smile. He thanked the beggar, mounted once more
the carriage and, in a great cloud of dust, the carriage rumbled on down the
country road.
The beggar,
after shaking his head for a time at this marvel, continued his journey and
arrived late in the day at the small hovel he called his home. After going in and placing his cap on the
table, he sat down and opened his sack. In the very bottom of the sack he found
a grain …. of the purest gold.
“Ah, he
thought, would that I had given all I had!”
