In ancient Babylon, two skilled craftsmen — Bansir the chariot-builder and Kobbi the musician — sit at the city wall frustrated. Despite working hard their entire lives, their purses remain empty. They decide to seek advice from their childhood friend Arkad, who has become the city's wealthiest man.

Arkad doesn't dismiss them. He remembers being poor himself and recalls the turning point: a chance to learn the secret of acquiring wealth from the moneylender Algamish. The lesson Algamish gave him was deceptively simple, and Arkad absorbed it completely while others ignored it.

The central insight is that wealth is not a matter of luck or inheritance — it is a matter of knowledge and disciplined habit. Babylon's richest man built his fortune not by earning more, but by keeping and growing what he earned.