Many years ago, when the sun burned orange all day and the night was wet with the smell of green moss and summer, two young Spanish lovers met in a little fishing village. Each day they would walk, barefoot along the great winding dust road. They would sit beneath the old olive tree and talk and laugh and warm their faces in the sun. It was beneath this olive tree that Pedro first kissed Esmiralda.

They shared their dreams with each other - Esmiralda wanted to study art in Italy and one day become a famous artist. Pedro spoke of becoming the wealthiest man in Spain. But they were young. And when the time came for Esmiralda to go off and study, she refused to leave. Her love had grown so strong, she told Pedro, that she feared leaving him for even one moment would surely destroy her. They held each other beneath the olive tree and they wept.

The next day, Esmiralda waited for Pedro on the hill above the dirt road but he never came. Nor did he come the next day, or the day after that........

Esmiralda was heartbroken. Although she searched for Pedro for many days, she never found him. She wrote to him but he never replied. Devastated, she left for Italy.

Esmiralda studied for several years and became a sculptor. She sculpted many fine pieces but her most cherished creation was a replica of the old olive tree she knew as a girl. She eventually became famous and at her first big international exhibition, the olive tree was sold for a large sum of money. The design was so special that many art collectors wanted Esmiralda to create olive trees for their own collections. But she never sculpted another one. It was a one-off, she said.

Forty years passed and Esmiralda retired a wealthy and successful artist. She married and had many children and lived in a beautiful house.

Sometimes, she would think back to those warm afternoons under the olive tree, and from time to time, she would wonder.

Then one day, she received a letter. It was from the attorneys of Pedro Bandidas saying he had passed away. In his will, he had stipulated that his entire estate would be left to her. Attached was a short letter that read :

"To my dear Esmiralda, I became what I always dreamed I would be. I am a man of great wealth, perhaps even the richest man in Spain. My fortune is greater than any man could ever dream of and I leave it all to you - my one and only true love . "

So Esmiralda made the trip to Spain. She travelled to the little fishing village and walked barefoot along the great winding dust road.

She sat beneath the old olive tree and turned her face to the sun. And she drank in the air.

Afterwards, she got a driver to take her to the address she had been given. Before her stood a beautiful mansion. She entered and, finding the palatial home full of Persian carpets and ornate paintings and gold trimmings, she felt her heart break for the second time.

Esmiralda was greeted by a man who told her, " I am the brother of Pedro. I am sorry if you have made this long journey in search of wealth.

My brother was a foolish man and you have obviously been led astray. He did not own this opulent home - I do. He was a poor man, he had no money. He sold what little possessions he had many years ago and all he had to show for it were the contents of this box. "

And he showed her to a tall cardboard box sitting in the corner of the room gathering dust.

" But he said in his letter that he was a man with great wealth," Esmiralda whispered to no one in particular.

She opened the box and found a note inside. It read :
" To my dear Esmiralda,
To experience true love - whether it's long-lasting or
just for fleeting moment - is to find eternal wealth."
And it was signed :
" The world's richest man ."

The note was attached to a sculpted olive tree that had once belonged to a poor Spanish man who had sold off all his worldly possessions to buy it more than 40 years before .