The 99 Club

*Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle,
was neither happy nor content.*

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he
worked. This fascinated the King: Why was he, the supreme ruler of the land,
unhappy and gloomy, while a servant had so much joy in his heart?

The King asked the man, "Why are you so happy?"

He replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but, my family and I
don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and food to fill
ourselves."

Later in the day, the King sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.
After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor declared,
"Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99
Club."

"The 99 Club? And, what exactly is that?" the King enquired.

The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place
99 gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."

This was done. When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When
he opened it, he let out a great shout of joy ... so many gold coins! He
began to count them. After several times, he was at last convinced that
there were 99 coins. He wondered, "What could have happened to that last
gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!" He looked everywhere he
could, but, that final coin was not to be found. Finally, exhausted, he
decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold
coin and complete his collection.

From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, grumbled a
lot and scolded his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He
stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought
his advisor's help, the advisor concluded, "Your Majesty, the servant has
now officially joined The 99 Club." He continued, "The 99 Club is a name
given to those people who have enough to be happy, but, are never contented,
because they are always yearning and striving for that extra 1 to round it
out to 100!

We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we are
given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep and
our happiness. We even hurt the people around us. All these are as a price
for our growing needs and desires.

That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."

Note: Hopefully, we can avoid being members of that club!