At Death You Can Not Take With You Even A Copper Penny

A Chinese folktale

By Elizabeth

Long ago, beyond the great forest of bamboo, there lived an old Chinese man who had a house of many courtyards near a tall pagoda. This man had many servants and always wore a red robe lined with gold and which was richly embroidered. If you were to look in his wardrobe, you would see many robes looking much the same as that one: all red with fancy gold trimmings. Then you would also see a very grand and expensive one kept especially for great occasions. It was made from the finest silk in all the lands. It was red, purple, gold, and very detailed. This old man's house was also very grand, it was full of high, lofty canopied silk beds and the furniture was painted and carved in wonderful detail and beauty.

But all was not well for the old man. His wife had just died leaving him with a small boy named Cha-no to raise. Cha-no had short black hair and light brown eyes and was tall with tannish colored skin. One day, when Cha-no was sixteen his father, the old man, fell very ill and called his son, Cha-no to his deathbed.

"Cha-no, I love you very much but I can only leave you a tiny amount of money in my Will. I will need most of it in the afterlife, which includes: our family's family jewels, almost all of our money, including the money we are going to make selling this house. I will be buried wearing my finest robe and the other robes will be buried next to me. Then, of course, I will need to have little odds and ends of value buried with me. After all, when I wake up in the afterlife I will need plenty of money, fine clothes, and things to continue my rich life..." announced his father.

So, after the old man died, his son, Cha-no, was left with very little money to start his new life. But we will come back to Cha-no because near the old man's house something much the same was happening.

In a shack about the size of a small kitchen, with only a small fire, one pot and two run down rugs to sleep on, a poor old widow was dying. She had an only daughter, Kat-lico, beside her. Kat-lico was seventeen with long black hair, bright green eyes, medium height, and slender shape.

"Oh, Kat-lico, I can never explain how much I love you. But, since I have not made a Will, you need to know that the little we own in this rundown shack that doesn't even have one piece of silk, shall go to you. But more importantly, all my love goes to you too," weeped the poor old widow.

And then, the sweet old widow died! Cha-no and Kat-lico both had very sad times in their lives as both their parents died when they were young. But as Cha-no went out to start a new life, he was poor in money and probably, felt pretty poor in love too. Kat-lico, was poor in money but she was used to being poor: more importantly, she felt rich in love.

And then yes, Cha-no and Kat-lico did get married and have three children, (two girls and one boy,) from oldest to youngest there were: Ni-co, a girl; Cha-tao, the boy; and, Nai-lo, the cute, little girl. Cha-no and Kat-lico also both learned how to make money and soon became rich, but they found the happy medium of life and didn't bother with lots of fancy frills.

And Kat-lico did promise herself to follow her mother's death-bed wisdom, and not only that but she taught this wisdom to her husband, children and many other people. Apparently Kat-lico's mother did know this, but nobody knows if some one taught her or if she was just that way. Here is what she knew: you can have anything buried with you but it probably won't be any use. But it will be put to much better use if it is given to someone to start his or her life with after you die.

The End

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