The fountain was large, about sixty feet in circumference. The designer was careful to depict the movement of the Sun on the outer circle. The inner circle was devoted to the Moon. The goddess Venus took the center stage and from her hands flowed a stream of fresh water pumped through a hoarse that went through her body. In the other hand she held a Lotus flower and she wore a crown of Jewels. Actually they were shinning glass pieces. Yet, every passerby imagined that they were precious stones. Some even thought of obtaining it when nobody would be around. And that never happened. There were always lovers who came here to make vows to each other. As a sign of their love they would throw their coin into the fountain making a wish.

The coins remained in the fountain for a month. At the end of the month the caretaker would come and gather all the coins. The money thus gathered would be his wages for that month.

Of all the coins that were minted there was one special coin that slipped by Was it a mistake? Nobody even noticed it. As it found itself in the market nobody wanted it. The vendors did not want to look at it and the customers refused to take it. One day a young man came with his girl-friend to buy some fruits. As part of the change the vendor gave him this worthless coin. He did not even look at it and put it in his pocket. The vendor was relieved to get rid of this coin which he had for many years.

The young couple went to the fountain that evening. Nobody was present at the fountain at that moment. The man took out the coin, made a wish and tossed it into the fountain. The coin landed with the other coins. The older coins said to one another, “What kind of a coin is this?” They continued, “Look at his shape! How miserable he looks. Can you take a closer look at the coin and find out how much is he worth?” Said the older coins to a coin nearby. The coin tried to look and could not read the number. After much searching it passed its judgment, “It is worthless”. The code word among all the other coins when referring to this coin was WC! WC stands for “worthless coin”.

That month when the time came for Mr. Smith to collect the coins he was startled when he saw this coin. He looked at it and cursed aloud, “Who would dare to do such a thing to a poor man like me. I only ask them for a little money. Look! What have they put into the fountain. Certainly nobody would ever want this coin again”.

Years passed by! The poor man continued his task. Hidden in the corner was this WC. A traveler came to visit this man. He was a kind of merchant who dealt with various kinds of coins. He asked the poor man if he had any unusual coins from his collections. The poor man went through his box and took out all the coins he thought were valuable. But the merchant wasn’t interested in them. He had all these coins in his own possession. As he walked by his eyes fell on WC. He asked the poor man if he could have the coin. The poor man said, “Please take it, it is useless to me. I tried to give it at the store but nobody would take it. If you take it then you will be doing me a favor”. The merchant reached for a five-dollar bill and gave it to the poor man. “I pray that will be a good price for this coin?” Asked the merchant. The poor man took the five-dollar bill reluctantly. He said in his thought, “What a fool! He gives me five dollars for something that is worthless?”

Years passed by and the coins all found themselves this time together at an auction site. Coins were being auctioned for large sums of money. Then from the audience stood the merchant with WC in his hand. He proudly showed the coin to all the other merchants. These knew the value of the coin the merchant held in his hands. The auction began. Someone started the bid at a million dollars. The poor man had just turned his TV and became curious to check out how much the coins were being sold at. His eyes were shocked when he recognized the worthless coin that he willingly gave to the merchant for five-dollars. He did not believe his ears when he heard the second bid, “Ten million dollars”.

The poor man wept and so also did all those who ever had a chance to possess this coin of great value. It was only this merchant who was in search of a valuable coin that found this coin in the possession of a poor man who never recognized the wealth that he possessed.

From that day onwards the word went out to all the coins in the world. “WC stands for “Wonder Coin”. And from that day WC was happy and thanked God for creating him to be just the way he was!

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