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A poor Man had a wooden Image of a god, to which he used to pray

daily for riches. He did this for a long time, but remained as

poor as ever, till one day he caught up the Image in disgust and

hurled it with all his strength against the wall. The force of

the blow split open the head and a quantity of gold coins fell

out upon the floor. The Man gathered them up greedily, and said,

"O you old fraud, you! When I honoured you, you did me no good

whatever: but no sooner do I treat you to insults and violence

than you make a rich man of me!"

HERCULES AND THE WAGGONER