This is the story of a young man named Rigel who inherited an old mine from his grandfather, when his grandfather died he whispered to him in his last breath, "my mine is of value" To Rigel it means a lot perhaps because his grandfather had already infected him with gold fever, excited by what the mine could hide he goes to his family and informs them:
"I'm going to look for gold in my mine"
The rest of his family does not seem to care that he is the sole heir, as they consider the mine to be depleted and worthless, but they try to talk some sense into him.
"but cousin, grandfather died in the greatest poverty, there is no gold left".
Rigel ignores his family's advice and spends his savings on it, riding a mule, he sets out on his journey to the mountain where the mine is located several kilometers from the city.
Along the way he comes across a thatched hut and two children between six and four years old with straight, sunshine-yellow hair
They were playing in the dirt at the edge of a puddle of water produced by a leaking pipe and Rigel came over to drink, suddenly the children's mother came out armed with a pot and asked him with a defiant tone:
Who are you, what are you doing here?
Rigel dropped his water basin and raised his hands:
"I'm just passing through, I'm heading to the mine on the hill"
"Are you related to the old miner?" asked the lady
"Yes, I am his grandson, he is dead and I am the new miner"
The children's mother told him:
"That mine has no more gold, your grandfather was crazy"
This incident did not change his mind and he continued on his way to the mine until he reached a small village where some villagers asked him while he was shopping.
"Where are you going, stranger?"
"I am the new owner of the mine"
The villagers looked at each other and said:
"That mine has no gold"
But he did not heed the warnings and went up the mine in search of gold.
He lived in the mine for a long time without getting anything of value until he ran out of provisions and hunger began to enter his gut, forcing him to go down to the village, but he had no money to buy anything, so he started begging for food to get home.
As he walks from corner to corner to see what he can find, he comes across the woman and her two children he saw at the beginning of his search for gold. When he sees the children he realises that they have grown up, which makes it clear to him that the time he spent in the mine was more than he thought.
The woman sees him and smiles at him, then greets him and asks him
" Why are you a beggar miner?"
"Now you mock, that mine had no gold in it" Rigel replies.
"But I can tell you are doing well"
"I am doing so well that I have nothing to eat and I am starving"
The woman says to him: "Come with me, I know where there is food".
He begins to follow her and notices that they are going in the direction of the mountain where his mine is, when they arrive they begin to pick strawberries, mangoes, milkweed, until they fill their bags.
Rigel does the same until he fills his bag and then asks the woman:
"Madam, you planted this here on my mountain"
The lady replied
"No, I thought you did it."
Rigel remembered that every time he ate a fruit he threw the seeds all over the place, and he spent many months like that. He looked at his mountain again and it was no longer the same, it was full of vegetables and fruits, he realized that he had inadvertently grown a lot of edible plants that could be sold.
Then he shouted, "Eureca!".