A Fool and his money are soon parted

An old man had lost everything he had ever owned in this world, except for a very precious gold watch. It had come to him as a gift from his ailing mother-in-law who, having no son of her own, had come to see him as her son, and had wanted him to keep her husband's gold pocket watch when she passed on.

The old man had enjoyed the many gifts of life but in his declining years lost them one by one, out of sheer carelessness, until he was waylaid by robbers one evening, and he had managed to escape unharmed with his watch still in his pocket. He realized he only had a few years to live, and having no child of his own to give the watch to, he decided it would go to a deserving one by happenstance. He set the watch on his window sill and waited to see who would be its next owner.

A magpie flew off with the shiny object, the old man chasing it it into the yard, as the magpie snuck it into his nest. The old man retrieved his gold watch from its high perch and put it back on the sill.

Along came a monkey and picked it up. The monkey struck it on the window sill several times, hoping to crack it open like a nut and eat the meat inside.The old man chased the monkey away with a stick and put the watch back on the window sill.

A merchant who had heard about the watch sent a servant to buy it from the old man for a hundred cowrie shells, and sold it to an antique dealer for a thousand.

The antique dealer's store got broken into and the watch changed hands yet again, in a resale to a snake oil salesman who bought the watch hoping he could use to his advantage the credibility it would lend to his appearance.

The snake oil salesman loved that it opened doors for him and brought out the silverware and fine china on his rounds, but over time he began to resent the watch. The watch got the welcome and the smiles, not him. He began to pour acid on the watch in a private little "feel better" ceremony every day. Nothing happened to the watch since it was made of gold, but the acid he handled wore down his skin and the snake oil began to make him sick. Very, very sick in mind and body he tossed the watch into a lake one night and went home to forget all about it.

But then, as it always happens, what is done in the dark comes to light, and to make a long story short, a fisherman found it ....