The Sage's Advice to His Sons

A wise man kept advising his sons: Dear children, learn a craft, for the power and wealth of this world cannot be trusted, and gold and silver are dangerous to carry on a journey; either a thief steals them all at once, or the owner spends them bit by bit. But a skill is a flowing spring, a lasting fortune. Even if the skilled person loses their wealth, there is no grief, because the skill itself is a fortune. Wherever they go they are valued and given a seat of honor, while the unskilled beg for crumbs and suffer hardship. It is hard to take orders after once holding rank, hard for one used to comfort to endure people's cruelty. Once, when unrest broke out in Syria, everyone fled, each from their own corner. The learned sons of villagers rose to become the king's ministers. While the minister's own foolish sons went begging out in the villages.