A not-so-long time ago, in a mining district, lived a miner named Bob who was poor as dirt. He supported his family by buying a meager supply of cabbage and coal he snuck out of his mine for their stove. His job was hard and time-consuming, and he was forced to travel thousands of feet down each day to mine coal. He developed a hacking cough and was extremely sick, but in order to survive, he continued his job.

One day, Bob traveled down in the rusty elevator like he usually did. It looked like it was going to be a normal day. But, as he turned the corner, he saw a large, shiny thing sticking out of the cave wall. He went closer to get a good look, but the supervisor caught him. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” he yelled through his megaphone. 

Bob, frightened, went right back to work. But he hadn’t forgotten the object. That night, he thought up a plan to sneak into the mine and investigate. He snuck onto the elevator and as the doors closed with a grinding screech, he steeled himself to enter the damp mine. As he reached the shiny object, he slid a dusty finger across it, revealing a blotch of gold. Bob’s heart rate increased as he revealed more gold. He made a mental note of the vein, and then ran home.

The next night, he brought his rusty pickaxe into the mine. He wandered around until he found the vein, swung at it, and made a small crack. He repeated this a couple of times until the chunk fell out, leaving him with a chunk of gold the size of a football. He then ran all the way back home.

The next day, he was going down in the elevator, planning on traveling to the market after the day at work. The gold was in his mining suit, tucked away into a pocket. All of a sudden, the elevator screeched to a stop. The gold chunk loosened itself just a little bit so that it poked out of Bob’s jumpsuit. Bob didn’t notice, as the elevator quickly started moving again. As Bob stepped out of the elevator, the supervisor walked up to him. 

The supervisor patted him on the back. “What’s up? How’ve you been doing?” 

Confused, Bob thought, What has gotten into him? The supervisor then hurriedly rushed away. Bob shrugged and went back to work. Meanwhile, the supervisor was huddled in a corner, smiling and holding a pile of gold.

Bob, on his way home, realized that the gold was gone. He then realized that it was the supervisor who, in bumping into him, had pickpocketed him!

Bob rode the elevator back down, and at the bottom, met the supervisor who was waiting for the elevator. Bob grabbed his collar and slapped the gold out of his hands and back into his, then dashed into the elevator. He tried pressing the “close door” button, but the supervisor was too quick. He got in just as the elevator doors shut with a groan. The elevator began going up as Bob and the supervisor grappled for the gold. Bob managed to wrench the gold out of the supervisor’s hands and shoved him up against the wall just as the elevator arrived on the surface. Bob ran home, panting. 

Upon arriving home, he, while gasping for air, told his family that he would be leaving for the market. 

As he made it to the market, the merchant at the pawnshop stall offered to pay $1,000 for the gold, more than Bob was expecting. He paid for some food for his family and medicine for himself, and they lived happily… for the next month.