Somewhere beyond the hill, where roads curled like spaghetti, there lived a little Motothing.
It was loud, shiny, and always rushing somewhere — as if someone had wound a spring inside it and forgotten to say, “That’s enough.”
“Everything is for sale!” it shouted to itself.
“And if something isn’t… just add more money!”
There was just one problem.
Motothing had pockets full of promises… but an empty wallet.
As it traveled across the land, it stopped at everything it liked:
To the trees: “How much do you cost?”
To the people: “How much to change your mind?”
To the ground: “I’ll sell, I’ll buy… and move on!”
Everyone looked at it with a bit of confusion. And a bit of tiredness.
And then Crumbelina appeared.
She sat on a small stone, calm, with her little hands on her heart — as if she were listening to something that cannot be bought or stolen.
“Hello,” she said softly.
“Why are you so loud?”
Motothing puffed itself up like a balloon.
“Because I can! Because I have money!
Because I can buy whatever I want!”
Crumbelina smiled. Not mockingly. Kindly.
“And do you have anything that cannot be bought?” she asked.
Motothing hesitated.
It rummaged through its pockets. It found receipts. Promises. Debts. And one small button from a coat it didn’t even know how it got.
But nothing warm.
“Hmm… and how much does respect cost?” it asked quietly.
“And trust?”
“And home?”
Crumbelina stood up and said so gently that even the wind fell silent:
“Those are not bought. They are grown.”
Motothing became quiet. For the first time in its life, it heard silence. And it realized that without it, there is only noise.
So it sat down next to Crumbelina.
It didn’t pull out money. It didn’t have any.
Instead, it pulled out a question.
And that was the beginning of a journey that cannot be bought. 💛