Once upon a time, there was a boy named Olon Dusk. He lived in a country that used star stones as currency. Star stones were believed to have been placed on the planet by space aliens thousands of years ago and hidden in the back of caves. They were very rare.

Unlike common rocks, these stones had a unique quality, as each was purple, perfectly flat, round, and the size of a grape. Unlike gold or turquoise, no one made jewelry from them, because melting or cutting them was impossible, and despite their small size, they were far too heavy for a person to wear comfortably in a piece of jewelry.

Because of their uniqueness, they were far too valuable to be used like tile to decorate countertops or walkways. But even if they had been plentiful and common, that would not have been possible, because material like concrete, mortar or any adhesive would not adhere to star stones.

And so, star stones became the country’s currency.

Olon Dusk dreamed of someday being the richest man in the world. He spent his free time exploring caves. His father had a job that took his family traveling with him all over the country, so Olon always had new caves to explore.

By the time Olon started college, he had mined enough star stones to buy himself an expensive new automobile. Yet, it was not enough for Olon.

One night when he was alone, he walked outside and looked up at the night sky and studied the stars. Focusing on the brightest star, he asked, “Why can’t I find a cave filled with star stones? Why are there so few of them? I wish I had an endless number of star stones. I would be the richest man in the world.”

To his astonishment, the star he had been watching grew noticeably brighter and the next moment he heard someone to his left say, “Hello.”

Startled, Olon turned abruptly to his left and found a woman standing next to him. But she was not a normal woman. Her skin was purple, like a star stone.

Olon’s eyes widened at the sight. “Who are you?”

“I’ve come from where star stones are born. And I am here to grant your wish.” She held out her open palm to him and a star stone appeared. “Take it.”

Hesitantly, Olon took it from her hand. It wasn’t heavy like a regular star stone. “I don’t understand.”

“Squeeze it gently and another one will appear. But be careful…”

She didn’t finish her sentence because he abruptly squeezed the stone, and another star stone appeared, hovering a moment in midair before it fell to the ground and landed on his toe. Unlike the star stone she had given him, this second one was heavy.

“Ouch!” he shouted.

She cringed. “I wish you would have let me finish what I was saying. But you will get the hang of it in no time, without breaking toes.”

He wiggled his toes. Nothing was broken. He leaned down and picked up the star stone from the ground and looked at it, glancing back at her. “How did you do that?”

“On our planet, we have mountains and mountains of what you call star stones. While you see them as valuable and rare, where I come from, they are abundant and have no purpose. Plus they take up too much land, rendering it unusable. Centuries ago, some of our people traveled to other planets, leaving the star stones in random caves. But later, wanting a more efficient way to remove star stones, scientists worked together to find an alternative, which is how they came up with the one I handed you. But as you can see, it didn’t work.”

“Look like it worked to me.”

She laughed. “No. They were trying to eliminate star stones, not create more.”

He looked back to the two star stones in his hand. “How was it supposed to work?”

“The star stone I handed you was sprayed with a compound developed by a team of scientists. They were trying to dissolve the stones. Instead, it made them lighter, but what was even worse, if squeezed by the right person, it would create another stone.”

“What happens if I squeeze it again?”

She smiled. “Every time you squeeze, it creates another star stone.”

“Indefinitely?”

“At least until it stops working. Which you don’t have to worry about, because according to extensive research by our scientists, it will keep producing star stones for two hundred years. Of course, you will be gone by that time, so I suppose it is indefinitely from your perspective.”

“What happens if I lose it, or someone takes it from me?” he asked.

“That won’t happen. Don’t ask me how it works. But once the stone is freely given to another person, it can’t be stolen or lost. It will always stay with you until you freely pass it on to another person. But even if you could lose it, there is always the X Depository.” She laughed. “But that won’t be necessary, because you will have all the star stones you could ever need. Having more would be a nuisance.”

He frowned. “What’s X Depository?”

“It’s where our people put the last load of star stones they brought to your planet. It was the largest shipment ever brought. From what I understand, it’s never been discovered.” She then told him the depository’s location.

* * *

The next morning, Olon drove to the site of the X Depository, located in a rural area, several hours from his home. Fencing surrounded the acre parcel of property, which only had a small section of buildable land, where a small, dilapidated house stood. A steep hill took up most of the property. He noticed an old woman sitting on the front porch of the house. The gate to the fencing was wide open, so Olon entered the gate and walked up the dirt driveway to the front porch.

“Hello,” the woman greeted him when he reached the porch. “How can I help you?”

“Do you own this property?” he asked.

“Yes, I do. It’s been in my family for three generations.”

“Would you like to sell it?” he asked.

“You don’t want to buy this property. My house is getting ready to fall down, and most of the land is useless. The hill’s too steep to even walk on.”

Olon talked to the woman for a while and finally convinced her to sell. He didn’t want to seem too anxious, so he offered her a fair price—for a piece of property with a steep hill and small building lot with a dilapidated building.

It took him several minutes to make enough stones to buy the property with the hidden cave, and once the woman moved out, he paid excavators to locate the cave by removing the extensive overgrowth of shrubbery and trees. 

They extracted the star stones. It proved to be the biggest discovery of star stones in history, making Olon the richest man in the world. According to newspaper articles, the stones discovered were more than the net worth of many countries.

He built an enormous vault on another piece of property, surrounded by extensive security fencing and guards, and moved the stones into the vault. For the next twenty years, Olon did not spend a single star stone retrieved from the X Depository. Not even for building the vault or fencing or guards. He didn’t need to.

* * *

Olon followed the mysterious purple woman’s advice and told no one about the magic stone. As years moved by, Olon no longer related to the average citizen. He associated with those at the very top of the income ladder. Like in all countries, regular citizens had ongoing challenges. Many dealt with inadequate health care and food and housing scarcity. Even the old woman who had sold Olon the property with the X Depository had problems. Her health issues forced her into a care home, and before long, the money Olon had paid for her property was gone, and she found herself on the street. Olon heard about the woman’s fate, yet didn’t see it as his problem.

Olon eventually married. But then he divorced. And then he married again and then divorced. He had children, some with wives, and some with girlfriends. None of them knew about the magic star stone. They just knew that Olan was the richest man in the world, and he had enough money that he never needed to spend what was stored in the vault.

Olon, who had enjoyed exploring caves in his youth, took it up as a hobby, and when he found more star stones, he placed them in the vault. Some criticized Olon for not using those star stones to help others, but those who idolized him for his wealth insisted they were Olon’s star stones, and he had the right to do what he wanted with them. And he did.

 Of all Olon’s children, his middle son was his favorite. When the boy was a small lad, Olon would dress him in a suit matching his own and carry him around on his shoulders to show the world his son. The boy was charming and well behaved, which pleased Olan. His critics accused Olan of using the boy as a shield from would-be assassins, while Olan’s fan said that was ridiculous. He simply loved his son and wanted to be with him.

As the boy grew older and too big to sit on his father’s shoulders, he was expected to walk by his father’s side whenever they went out in public. While the boy may have enjoyed being paraded around on his father’s shoulders and receiving attention as a small child, as he grew up, he—like all normal children—wanted to be with other children. He found his father’s limited world boring.

Eventually, Olan relented and sent his son to a private boarding school, guarded by a private security detail. However, as Olan’s dream had been to be the richest man in the world, his son’s dream had been to travel. Throughout his school years, he saved most of the star stones his father had given him for an allowance, and on his eighteenth birthday, he silently disappeared, removing himself from his father’s world and the security detail.

Over the next decade, the son traveled the world, meeting people from all walks of life. He shared meals with them, talked to them, and learned about their dreams and struggles. He befriended them. People and their lives facinated him. Sometimes he enjoyed visiting cemeteries and reading the markers, imagining what the people buried there were like. Once, when visiting a cemetery, he met a grieving woman whose husband had died because they didn’t have enough star stones to pay for his insulin, and they had been rationing the medication. He thought of the star stones in his father’s vault, never touched and just sitting there, and how his father could easily pay for everyone’s insulin in his country, and it would only take a fraction of the star stones in the vault—stones that sat there unspent.

Another time, he visited a hospital that was woefully understaffed and lacked the necessary medical equipment to serve the community. He asked someone why, and they explained they simply did not have the funding. When he asked how much they needed, while the amount was high, to his father it would be like having lunch at a restaurant.

One thing the son learned during his travels; most people worked very hard. They weren’t lounging around waiting for a handout, like he had once heard his father say. This new knowledge and outlook on life filled the son with ideas, and he returned to his father.

* * *

Olan was thrilled to see his son, especially because Olan knew he was getting older and needed to decide who he might one day pass the star stone to.

“I am glad you have returned,” Olan said.

The son told his father about his adventures, but he didn’t mention his ideas about spending some of his father’s star stones on philanthropy endeavors to help others. One reason, he did not know if his father had actually been doing this during the years he had been away and had made his donations anonymously.

“We need to talk about something,” Olan finally said. He then pulled out the magic star stone from his pocket. He handed it to his son, allowing him to feel its weight, much lighter than a regular star stone. And then he told his son about how he had received the magic stone. After he finished the telling, he took the magic stone, squeezed it, and then handed his son the newly created star stone.

The son stared at it. “And you never need to spend the star stones in the vault? You can get what you need with that?”

Olon laughed. “I haven’t removed a single star stone since I initially built the vault. In fact, I expanded the vault last year, because I’ve added so many more.”

“Added how?” the son frowned.

“Sometimes, when I’m watching television, I absently squeeze the magic stone, creating hundreds more. I then take them to the vault. Because I don’t really need them here. And I still enjoy treasure hunting in caves.”

“So you aren’t using the stones in the vault to buy anything?”

Olon shrugged. “Why would I need to do that? This magic stone gives me more than enough star stones to purchase whatever I need—whatever I want.”

“Why not use what is in the vault to help other people?”

Olon frowned. “Help what people? My friends don’t need help. They have their own star stones. Maybe not as many as me, but more than they will ever need.”

“What about the people you don’t know? Many people in our country aren’t as lucky as you.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it!” Olon snapped. “I’ve worked hard for my money. It is my money. I’m the one who was clever enough to purchase the land holding the X Depository. I’m the one exploring caves, collecting more star stones. Even when I watch TV, I am making star stones. I’m not responsible for those people.”

“You never plan to spend the vaulted star stones?”

“Why would I? I don’t need to go down there when I have this.” Olon waved the magic star stone briefly before putting it in his pocket.

“Why bother filling a vault with star stones?”

“So people can’t steal them, of course.” Olon frowned.

“What good are they doing just sitting there in a vault?”

“If I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t be the richest man in the world, would I?”