A young student on the path to enlightenment visited many temples. She always carried with her a little Buddha statue she had carved out of wood and had it covered with gold leaf.
Whenever she burned incense before her golden Buddha, she denied the others any of the aroma. She would use a funnel to direct the incense straight to her Buddha’s nose.
Within a month, her Buddha was destroyed — his face no longer consisted of shiny gold leaf, but of black smut and ash.