ANOTHER PARABLE OF NEW YORKERS
"The man had a bundle of rags, and the bundle of rags was shaped like a man. He didn't know where the bundle had come from: it had always been there. One day the man noticed that the coat on the outside of the bundle of rags might fit him, so he took it from the bundle of rags and put it on. It fit him very well, he thought. As time went on, the man continued to remove layers from the bundle of rags. But he didn't know whether he needed something before the bundle of rags provided him with it, or whether he looked at the bundle of rags and found a need for something in it. However it happened, as the man grew older and older, the bundle of rags got smaller and smaller. When he was very old, the bundle of rags only contained a tiny silken sack.
Late one night the man slowly opened the silken sack and shook out a handful of diamonds. He looked at the diamonds, shrugged, and then died."
"Why didn't the man do anything with the diamonds?"
"Maybe because they came at the end. Whatever comes at the end makes no difference at all."