The test stone

They say that only one scroll survived the last huge fire of Alexandria’s library. A very ordinary book, boring and uninteresting. It was sold for a very small sum to an old man who could hardly read. But even though, superficially, the book was boring and uninteresting, it was probably the most valuable book in the world, because right at the bottom of the scroll (nowadays we would say: on the last page) were in large, clear letters a few sentences on ‘The secret of the test stone.’
It was written that the test stone was a pebble that turned everything it touched into pure gold. This pebble lay somewhere on the coast of the Black Sea, among many millions of other pebbles all looking the same, but the so-called test stone could be set apart as it felt warm and alive when you took it in your hand.
The old man was beside himself with joy. If he would succeed in finding the test stone, he would be rich!
He sold everything he owned, borrowed a sum of money and left for the Black Sea. He put up his tent and set to work. He picked up a pebble and if it felt cold he didn’t throw it back onto the ground, but threw it into the water, so that he would not pick up the same pebble again. That was his way of working.
Each day the old man spent many hours picking up pebbles, feeling if it was warm, throwing it in the water. That’s how it went, year after year. Picking up, throwing out, picking up, throwing out, uninterrupted…
He did not find the test stone.
But then, one evening, he picked up a pebble and it felt warm and alive and, with a well practiced throw, he threw the pebble in a long, arching curve into the water.