"The Fortune of Chelm" is an Eastern European legend.

Long ago, the villagers of Chelm gathered around their wise men to hear the news.

"We have learned that across the desert and over the mountains, near the seaside, there are bags and bags of gold awaiting us," the wise men said.

"Hooray!" the Chelmites shouted, and at once they began to dream of the fortune that would soon be theirs.

They agreed that the young, strong men of Chelm must travel to fetch their treasure. They also agreed that although the wise men were very old, they would take one wise man along.

They departed, and the wives, children and old men planned the new synagogue they would build with their gold, the gardens and trees they would plant and the cloth they would buy.

Weeks passed as the men climbed mountains and crossed deserts. They were tired and hungry, but dreams of gold gave them strength to keep walking.

At last they arrived at a field, and there lay bags brimming with gold.

"Astounding," Shlomo cried.

"Remarkable, and ours!" Moishe agreed.

The men sang joyfully as they loaded the bags upon their backs.

They could barely move, but their heads were filled with images of the pleasure the gold would bring, spurring them on. But under the heat of the desert sun, some men began to fade. "I can't do this," Shlomo gasped.

By nightfall, sweating and exhausted, the men pleaded with their wise man to find a way to ease their burden.

"I will come up with a plan," the wise man said. "I always do."

At dawn the wise man called everyone to his tent. "I can solve our problem," he said. "If we use our gold to purchase horses and wagons, we will no longer have to carry our riches. Instead, our riches shall carry us!"

The men cheered, and at a nearby village they bought horses and wagons, and they traveled on. Then one day the horses stopped.

"Our horses are starving," Moishe said. "They'll never make it back to Chelm."

"We must sell our horses for food," Shlomo said. "Food is always valuable, and surely our horses and wagons are worth many bushels of food."

But the wise man raised his hand and cried, "You are fools!"

Everyone looked at him.

"Food is heavier than gold. How would we carry that? And food spoils. Trading horses for food makes no sense."

"But what will we do?" Moishe asked.

The wise man smiled. "We'll trade our horses and wagons for feathers. Nothing is lighter and easier to move than feathers."

"Hooray for our wise man!" Shlomo exulted. "Feathers. Of course!"

They left their horses and walked to the village, and there they found a feather merchant who happily agreed to the trade.

When the men of Chelm saw the field filled with thousands of bags of feathers, their mouths dropped open. "How will we carry all these bags?" Simon groaned. "We're ruined."

Again the wise man smiled. Then he raised a finger in the air. "Watch," he said, and he opened one of the bags.

The brisk wind blew the feathers into the air. "Now tell me," said the wise man. "What direction are those feathers blowing?"

The men saw the sun rising in the direction the feathers were blowing. "East!" they shouted. "They are blowing east toward Chelm!"

"Exactly," said the wise man. "God's wind will carry our feathers for us."

The men opened every bag, and soon the sky was thick with feathers. The men cheered, and continued their journey. When they reached Chelm, they were dismayed to find the village exactly as it always had been.

They searched everywhere, and asked every woman and child. "Have you seen the feathers? We own a fortune in feathers, but they should be here."

The women and children shook their heads. "We've seen no feathers."

"We've lost everything!" the men sobbed. "We're ruined!"

But the wise man said, "People, you speak nonsense again. You must have patience, and you must have faith. One day the sky will be thick with our feathers, and at long last our town will be filled with the treasure we so richly deserve."

"Our wise men are always right," Shlomo said softly.

And ever since that day, every Chelmite has walked around looking up at the sky, and every person in Chelm is always happy, for they all know that one day their fortune will float down from the sky.