A Tale of Treasure Lost and Found

Once upon a time, there were 7 men, good and true.  They worked hard for their money and they spent some of it on lottery tickets together every week but they never won anything.  Or so they were told. 

One day, when they turned in a winning ticket, the evil retailer kept their prize of a free ticket for himself and when that free ticket won $12.5 million dollars the following week, he got his daughter to claim the prize as her own.  The evil retailer and his family spent that prize money on many different fancy things, while the 7 coworkers went on with their lives, not knowing they had been cheated.

Until one day, many years later, the lottery corporation phoned to tell the men that the evil had been discovered and they were the true winners of this great prize.  The retailer and his family had to give back all the fancy houses and cars and jewellery and would be punished for their sins.  The coworkers rejoiced over their good fortune.  They made jokes about the interest that had accrued on those funds that would not have collected if they had received their rightful prize years ago when they were younger and more foolish.  They made plans with their families about how to spend the money.  They were happy.

Elsewhere in the kingdom, a woman bought herself a lottery ticket, knowing the odds were against her but enjoying the possibility that she too might someday be a prize winner.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but who know? Maybe some day...

(based on a true story:  read about it here.)