"Andrew On Prostitutes" 
by Gibran Khalil Gibran 

THE GOLDEN BELT

Once upon a day two men who met on the road were walking together toward Salamis,
the City of Columns. In the mid-afternoon they came to a wide river and there was no
bridge to cross it. They must needs swim, or seek another road unknown to them. 

And they said to one another, "Let us swim. After all, the river is not so wide." And they
threw themselves into the water and swam. And one of the men who had always known
rivers and the ways of rivers, in mid-stream suddenly began to lose himself; and to be
carried away by the rushing waters; while the other who had never swum before
crossed the river straight-way and stood upon the farther bank. Then seeing his
companion stil wrestling with the stream, he threw himself again into the waters and
brought him also safely to the shore. 

And the man who had been swept away by the current said, "But you told me you could
not swim. How then did you cross that river with such assurance?" And the second man
answered, "My friend, do you see this belt which girdles me? It is full of golden coins
that I have earned for my wife and my children, a full year's work. It is the weight of this
belt of gold tha carried me across the river, to my wife and my children. And my wife
and my children were upon my shoulders as I swam." And the two men walked on
together toward Salamis.