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Crates and the given-away fortune

Crates of Thebes inherited a considerable fortune, enough never to have to work again. He decided to give it away. According to tradition he sold his possessions and distributed the proceeds among his fellow citizens, after which he lived as a wandering philosopher in a simple cloak. He became well known and well liked: Athenians let him into their homes to settle quarrels, and called him the door-opener. Among his students sat a shipwrecked merchant who had just lost his entire cargo: Zeno. What Zeno learned from Crates about possessions and independence ended up, later, in the Stoa.

The crossroads

You have enough never to need anything again. And precisely that turns out to be a question rather than an answer: what are you going to use it for?

The sorting

That he inherited was not his; what he did with it was. Note the nuance, because it matters: the Stoa does not ask you to give things away. Crates was a Cynic, more radical than the Stoics who followed him; Seneca was enormously wealthy. The lesson is not in the amount but in the direction: possessions are a tool, and a tool serves a purpose you choose.

The question for you

If money is a tool, what is yours for? And would you give the same answer if nobody were watching?

Practice this yourself

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