"Yes! Endless
money. Riches! Wealth! Ha! Ha! Huge, massive, obscene wealth!"
"I thought so," said the genie in the same bored tone.
"No, wait," the man said, his eyes suddenly narrowing. "Power. Yeah,
that's it. Complete and total power over everyone and everything
in the world. With power I could get all the money I wanted."
"So you want power, huh?" asked the genie.
"Well, yes," said the man, now a bit hesitant because of the genie's
less-than-enthusiastic tone. "Of course, with money I suppose I
could buy power. Which do you think I should ask for, Genie?"
"How about world peace or personal humility or an end to famine or
maybe an end to greed," suggested the genie, emphasizing the last
phrase. "Or perhaps the gift of discernment or knowledge or
spiritual enlightenment or even simple happiness."
"But with money or power I could buy or command all those," objected
the man.
"Yeah, sure," said the genie.
"Well, just give me power and I'll show you that I can have
everything else, too."
"You shall have what you ask," said the genie resignedly. "Whether
you shall have what you imagine you must learn for yourself, and you
will soon find out."
"Well, I certainly hope to have it all. Don't you ever hope, Genie?"
"Yes," said the genie. "I hope that someday my lamp will fall into
the hands of a wise man.
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