Thus the boy sat at the edge of the well and made sure that nothing fell into it; at one time, however, his finger hurt so much that he put it spontaneously into the water.
Quickly he took it out again but saw that it was all golden, and no matter how much he tried to wipe off the gold again, it was all in vain.

“This is the nature of pure knowledge: it gilds everything that is brought in touch with it, and the gold stays.
The king's son made this experience very naturally and spontaneously - purely from within himself; for nobody had told him to put his finger into the gold-well; on the contrary, he was supposed to see to it that nothing fell into it.

“All too much the boy tried to make himself believe that his finger was not golden - but obviously it was different.

“This is the nature of the wealth which springs from the source of pure knowledge: this wealth is not imagined - it is experienced by the one blessed with it as concretely as any other practicality of daily life, and even if he tries to deny this experience - he would not succeed if he were true to himself.

Therefore it is not possible to dissuade someone from the truth and its blessing once he has been in touch with it - no matter how small and how short his contact with the source of wisdom might have been.

All this was suddenly obvious to the king's son.