a philosophical story

Yesterday evening, my roommate Wang told me a philosophical story. So I write it down to share with you, may you enjoy it.

once upon a time, a billionaire made a bet on money with a poor intellectual. The billionaire would give the one billion dollars if the intellectual could do nothing except for reading books, eating and sleeping in ten years. The intellectual gave his words to the billionaire. And then, the poor intellectual was locked in a small house full of a great variety of books including literatures, philosophies, physics, medics and so forth. The sole occupation of the intellectual is reading the books day after day, however, he didn't take that as a tedium thing but find a lot of things which fascinated him very much.

With time flies, it was only a month before the deadline of the ten years. However, on account of failures of investment and business, the billionaire was bankrupt. He had no money to pay the intellectual. So the billionaire had a guy to murder the poor intellectual. When the murder got to the house which the intellectual lived during the these ten years, he found that the intellectual had escaped via breaking through the window, and left a letter on the desk. As a matter of fact, the intellectual had heard the billionaire's bankruptcy and predicted that the billionaire would had him died, so he escaped without reclaiming his money. The letter reads:
”Dear Sir,
Hi, a long time on see. I am so sorry to hear your bankruptcy. It is unnecessary for you to kill me, because I have decided to give up the money of the bet. Because I don't need your money any more, at present, I can earn lots of money by myself through the knowledges I have acquired by reading these years. Thank you for your bet and books. To a certain extent, you have paid me and the money will not run out forever. ”