[one of] 99 stories of God

19

When he was a boy, someone’s great-grandfather told him this story about a traveller in thirteenth-century France.

The traveller met three men pushing wheelbarrows. He asked in what work they were engaged, and he received from them the following three answers.

The first said: I toil from sunrise to sunset and all I receive for my labor is a few francs a day.

The second said: I’m happy enough to wheel this wheelbarrow, for I have not had work for many months and I have a family to feed.

The third said: I am building Chartres Cathedral.

But as a boy he had no idea what a chartres cathedral was.

Joy Williams, ninety-nine stories of God.

[Nitpicking on that sharp little tale: Francs did not become a currency in France until 1360, when it was first coined to attempt to ransom the then king of France, John II, who still died a prisoner in England.]