Once upon a time there was this foolish traveler who had gone on a journey. Why was he foolish? Well because he was fooled by everyone he’d met. Everywhere he went people made up all kinds of sad stories to tell him, and the traveler fell for every one of them. Pretty soon his money, his clothes, even his shoes have been cheated away from him, but the foolish traveler was always glad to help and he always told people the same thing; I wish you happiness.

But by this point, the traveler was completely naked and nothing left to cover himself he decided to leave the main road and travel through the dense forest where no one can see him. But soon he was discovered by the goblins that lived in the woods. The goblins wanted to eat the traveler’s body! So they begged and pleaded and used kind words to try and trick him. Of course, the traveler was fooled. First he let the goblins eat one of his legs, then arm, then more and more. After it was over all the traveler had left was his head. He’d even given his eyes away to the last of the goblins. And as the last goblin was eating the traveler’s eyes, he turned and said, “Thank you, traveler. In return I leave you this present.” All the goblin left was this piece of paper with the word fool written on it. The traveler couldn’t see it, he didn’t know what it was. Even so, tears began to float out of his face.

“Thank you,” he said, “This is the first present anyone’s ever given me, I’m so happy!” Even without his eyes, he cried with tears of joy. Then, the traveler died, the smile still on his face.

But Momiji had a different idea:

“Yesterday, all the other kids started making fun of the traveler.. but while they did that I closed my eyes and thought about him a little bit longer…I thought about how he’d given away all he had until all that was left was his head, and about how he still cried for joy at the end… and then I realized I feel so sorry for him. Loss, hardship, stuff like that. You can’t always focus on them. The traveler didn’t, he never thought about his own troubles at all. I imagine that it probably does sound foolish to some people but not to me, I don’t think he’s foolish at all. Even though other people think he was being tricked, I don’t think he was. I think he did exactly what he wanted to do. I think, more than anything, he just wanted to make other people happy.”