Balzac Laughs At The Thief

One night Balzac was sleeping in his room. Very quietly, on tiptoe, a thief entered into Balzac's room. The room was extremely small. There was a simple bed. Beside the bed, there was a desk, where Balzac used to write his novels.

The thief thought that since Balzac was so famous, he would have lots of money. He was looking here, there and everywhere, but he was not finding any money. The thief came to Balzac's desk, and he was so surprised that there was no money on the desk. Without making a sound, the thief opened up the desk drawer. Balzac was actually not sleeping, he was observing. He wanted to see what the thief was going to steal. When the thief opened up the drawer, Balzac burst out laughing.

Astonished, the thief asked, "Why are you laughing, instead of chasing me and grabbing me?"

Balzac answered, "I am laughing because you are looking for money here. You have taken such risk! You might well be caught and then you would be put into jail. You took so much risk to get my money during the night. It is so dark now. But I must tell you that I cannot find any money here even during the day!"

The thief said, "Please, please, forgive me!"

Balzac said, "All right, I forgive you. You have to find someone who is really rich, and I do hope you will be successful."