It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale, the tools were put out for public inspection. Each tool was marked with its own sale price.

They were a treacherous lot of implements... Hatred, Jealousy, Envy, Lying, Deceit, Pride, Unforgiveness, and so on. Laid apart from the others was a harmless looking tool, well worn, but priced very high.

Pointing to it, one of the shoppers asked, "What is the name of this tool?" The devil tersely replied, "That is DISCOURAGEMENT." The shopper asked, "Why have you priced it so high?" The devil replied, "Because it is more useful to me than the others. I can pry open and get inside a person's heart with it when I cannot get near them with my other tools. Once I get inside, then I can make them do what I choose. It is so badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since very few people know that it belongs to me."

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