Greed; The Root of All Evil

They say that the root of all evil is greed and I for one believe it.  When I was about nine years old, I purchased a lotto ticket from a machine that was inside a grocery store where I lived in corning.  This of course was behind my Mom’s back because she would never allow me to have purchased one because she did not like the idea and it was illegal (due to my age).  I scratched it and ended up winning $50!  For a child of my age $50 is a lot of money.  I was so exited but my excitement soon came to an end.  How was I going to tell my Mom without getting in trouble?  I decided to tell my fourteen year old cousin.  Once he saw it he took it and told me that I had made a mistake, that I had not won any money.  I believed him because I looked up to him and thought that he would not lie to me so we left it at that, so I thought.

A couple of weeks later after the incident my aunt and my cousin who had taken my winning lotto ticket came to our home.  My cousin had a fifty dollar bill in his hands and looked like he had been crying.  My Mom and I soon discovered that my cousin had cashed my lotto ticket and purchased a pair of gold earrings for his girlfriend but when her ears, where the earring hole is, turned green my cousin was questioned.  He had purchased a pair or cheap earrings, not gold ones.  My aunt found out and forced my cousin to tell her the truth about where the money to but the earrings came from, so he did.  He was punished and asked to give me my $50 back.  Well, it was not a happy ending for me, my Mom became angry with me, took the money and bought me clothes and for a child clothes is the last thing that I would have purchased.

In Salman Rushdie’s “East, West” book of short stories, the story of The Prophet’s Hair there is a family who seems to have endless satirical event happen to them and it all begins with greed.  A man by the name of Hashim, a wealthy moneylender, comes across a silver vile with a single strand of hair that once belonged to the Prophet Muhammad.  Instead of having the vile and hair placed in public display, Hashim decides to keep if for himself.  “They say there are American millionaires who purchase stolen art masterpieces and hide them away-they would know how I feel.  I must, must have it!” (pg 44).  The relic soon becomes the source of problems in Hashim’s home and his family members are left with only one choice; to get rid of the vile.

Hashim’s wife goes on a search of a robber to steal the vile from her home and she finds one.  The night of the robbery, Hashim’s daughter is accidentally killed by him and his son also dies.  That night the wife also goes insane and in result is placed in an asylum.  The robber who had no idea of the significance of the veil soon finds out its importance.  This leads him to leave his blind wife until things settle down but the police soon find him.  The robber is shot and the vile and hair are retrieved by the police.  Not all ended up to be a total tragedy.  When the robber left his wife she gained her sight back.

Hashim was a wealthy man who allowed greed to take over his life.  He believed that he had something precious and valuable but it was that thing that ended up taking the most precious and valuable thing he had always had; his family.  "The treacherous are caught by their own greed" (Prov. 11:6).