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. One day, in disgust, he seized the image and hurled it with all his strength against the wall.
The force of the blow split open the head of the image, and a quantity of gold coins fell out onto the floor. The man gathered them up greedily and said, "Oh, you old fraud! When I honored you, you did me no good whatever. But no sooner do I treat you with insults and violence than you make a rich man of me!"