In her book Amazing Grace , writer Kathleen Norris shared an account about a time she and her husband visited a man named Arlo. He was a rugged, self-made man who was fighting terminal cancer. During their visit, Arlo started talking about his grandfather, who was a sincere Christian. On his wedding day, he gave Arlo and his bride a present: an expensive leather Bible with their names printed in gold lettering. Arlo left it in the box and never opened it. For months afterward the wedding his grandfather kept asking if he liked the Bible. Arlo said that his wife had written a nice thank-you note and they had thanked him in person, but grandpa wouldn’t leave the subject alone; he frequently asked about it.
Finally, Arlo grew curious enough to open the Bible and found that his grandfather had placed a twenty-dollar bill at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, and at the first page of every book. When he added it all up there was over $1,300 in that Bible. Arlo then said, “And he knew I’d never find it.”
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Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith