Two traveling angles stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angles stay in the mansion’s guestroom. Instead the angles were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed in the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angle asked why, the older angle replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.”

The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing the little food they had the couple let the angles sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angles found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angle was infuriated and asked the older angle how he could have let this happen. “The first man had everything, yet you helped him,” he accused. “The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow lie”.

“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angle replied. “when we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it.”
“Then last night as we slept in the farmer’s bed, the angle of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren’t always what they seem.