Arkad’s eyes grew serious. "There is a third law: Guard your gold from loss by consulting the wise. Would you ask a baker to heal a broken leg? No. Then do not ask a brick-layer to manage your investments. I lost gold twice—once to a reckless friend, once to a get-rich-quick scheme—until I learned to seek advice from those who understand wealth. Lend only where your gold is safe."
One evening, a former childhood friend, Bansir the chariot builder, came to Arkad’s lavish home. Bansir’s clothes were threadbare, his hands calloused. "Arkad," Bansir said, "you and I played together as boys. We both worked hard. Yet you bathe in gold, while I struggle to buy a single donkey. Why?"
Arkad nodded. "Anyone can do this. Save a tenth. Let it grow. Avoid loss. Do this for ten years, and you will not be poor. Do it for thirty, and you will dine with kings." najbogatiot covek vo vavilon
And while Arkad remained the richest man in Babylon until his final breath, Bansir became the second richest—not because he inherited gold, but because he finally understood the helpful story hidden inside a simple truth:
Arkad said. "For years, I paid everyone else: the baker, the clothier, the sandal-maker. But I never paid myself. Algamish told me to put aside no less than one-tenth of every coin I earned. Not to spend. To keep." Arkad’s eyes grew serious
Bansir frowned. "I earn so little. One-tenth is a few coppers."
Arkad smiled gently. "You ask why luck has kissed my brow, Bansir? But luck waits for no one. It is habit that builds wealth." Lend only where your gold is safe
Bansir returned to his humble workshop, but now with a small clay pot. Every time he was paid for a chariot, he dropped one of every ten coppers into that pot. He never spent that pot. After a year, he lent the savings to a rope-maker. After five years, he bought his own donkey—and then a second.
He then told Bansir a helpful truth—one he had learned from Algamish, the moneylender who first taught him.