THE LOST GOLD PIECE

Once a rich merchant arranged dinner for poor people ex-soldiers. Mr. Lebeau was among the guests. After dinner Grandin, the host, showed his guests a large gold coin. Each man examined it with interest as it passed around the long table. However, talking and drinking the men soon forgot all about the coin. Later on the guests were about to leave house. Grandin thought of the coin and asked for it. But the coin was gone. The village lawyer being one of the guests suggested that everybody should be searched. All agreed at once but Lebeau. His friends looked at him with surprise. "I cannot allow it," he said. "I did not steal the coin. I will not allow anybody to search me," he repeated. One by one the rest turned out their pockets but the coin was not found. Lebeau would not turn out his pockets though his friends were persuading him to. It seemed suspicious to everybody. From that day on nobody respected Lebeau.

A few years passed. When this episode had become almost legendary, Grandin decided to rebuild his house. A workman found the gold coin between two planks of the floor of the room in which the dinner had taken place.

Grandin hurried to Lebeau's poor home and told him that he had found the coin and apologized for having suspected him. "But why did you not allow us to search you if you had not taken the coin?" he asked.

Lebeau answered: "Because I was a thief all the same. For weeks my family and I had not enough to eat and my pockets were full of food that I had taken from the table to carry home for my wife and hungry children."

1. What dinner did a rich merchant arrange once?

2. What did the host show to the people after dinner?

3. What happened to the coin?

4. Did all the guests agree to be searched?

5. When was the coin found?

6. Where did Grandin hurry when he found coin?

7. Why didn't Lebeau allow to be searched?