![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Hannah-0-300x214.jpeg\")
People of the village were as beautiful as the place.\u00a0The glow on their faces was similar to the shimmering snow peaks. Their demeanour was soft and gentle like the breeze.<\/p>\n
Having completed her school, Hannah wanted to see the world outside, meet new people and learn new things.<\/p>\n
Even though she lived a comfortable life, she did not want to spend her entire life in one place.<\/p>\n
The young girl had dreams that she wanted to chase.<\/p>\n
She wanted to study in a college or go to a university.<\/p>\n
One day, she told her father about her dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut how?\u201d her father asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I want to support you, how will you leave this place?\u201d<\/p>\n
He worked on a small farm and didn\u2019t have much money. He earned only enough to feed his family. Travelling to some other part was out of question for him.<\/p>\n
In the village, people were self-reliant. Money was not used to buy goods and eatables. Instead, meat was exchanged for cereals, eggs for cotton and milk for vegetables.<\/p>\n
People knew how to make goods out of anything.<\/p>\n
One autumn day, Hannah took a walk down a village lane.<\/p>\n
Underneath a tree along the path, she saw an old man crouched in his black blanket.<\/p>\n
Hannah, who was kind, went up to the old man and offered him help.<\/p>\n
As the old man lifted his head on hearing the girl\u2019s voice, she realised he was a stranger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never seen you before. Who are you?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a stranger. A traveller from a faraway country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hannah could see he was sad.\u00a0This made her sad too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you sad?\u201d she enquired, settling to sit beside the stranger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent all my life working. I became rich, was loved and respected. When I grew old, I realised I had not seen enough of the world. So, I decided to travel like a stranger and meet new people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to see the world and meet new people, but unlike you I do not have money. I will be spending the rest of my life here with nothing much to do,\u201d she told the old man.<\/p>\n
After pausing for a few seconds, the old man said to Hannah: \u201cI can give you money if you give me your time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you spend time with me every day and tell me stories about your village, I will give you money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hannah was elated. She quickly agreed.<\/p>\n
It is going to be just another exchange,\u00a0she thought.<\/p>\n
The next day and thereafter she spent time with the old man and told him village stories.<\/p>\n
Soon, she had enough money to travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not be seeing you anymore. I have made enough money, I can travel now. I am rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
The old man smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were already rich,\u201d he told Hannah.<\/p>\n
The only true wealth with anyone anywhere in the world is time, he told the girl.<\/p>\n
If you have time, you can convert it into anything you want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A young girl, Hannah, lived in a small village. The village was a world in itself. It was surrounded by lofty mountains and was connected to the world by a couple of passes which opened only once every summer. People of the village were as beautiful as the place.\u00a0The glow on their faces was similar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,15,12,11,8,44,43,45],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-children-stories","tag-inspirational","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-kashmir","tag-kids-stories","tag-time","tag-time-is-money","tag-value-time","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}