There was once a man who was going to travel to a dangerous land. He goes to the house of a man, well known for his
honesty. He knocks the door and tells him: I'm giving you $1440 to keep with you as I am travelling to a dangerous place. When I get back, I only want $17 back." The honest man stood their perplexed but agreed.

The next day, the traveller comes back to the honest man's house and asks him for $17. The honest man tells him that he forgot and that he had spent it all. The traveller forgave him since he knew that this man is honest enough to give it back later.

The next day, the same man travels to the same dangerous place and gives the same honest man $1440 to keep and at the end of
the day, he will take $17 back. The traveller returns from his travels and asks the honest man for his $17. The honest man replies that he
was so engrossed in having a good time with his friends, that he spent all the money again. Once again, the traveller forgave him, knowing he didn't do it on purpose.

This same incident starts to happen everyday, whereby the honest man is given $1440 and is expected to return only $17 but fails to do so.

Later on, his child becomes sick and the doctor who was going to give the treatment tells the honest man that if he wishes for his child to be looked after, the fee was $1440. The honest man starts to panic realising he can't afford $1440. It then struck him that the traveller used to give him that same amount.

He runs to the traveller's house and asks him in a panic for $1440. The traveller told him that due to his feeble excuses, he has stopped going to his house as he has lost faith in his honesty.

The irony is, is that this story has once been directly relevant to each and every single one of us(Muslims). It is quite remarkable that Allah (swt) gives us 1440 minutes each day and only specifies 17 minutes of that back in prayer. But due to the ignorance of people and the whisperings of Shaitaan the accursed, we are blinded towards the minute scale of what we are giving back.

This story points out three things.
1. The importance of Salah and how little we have to give back.
2. The mercy of Allah that he forgives us even after such blunders.
3. The fact that we only realise how important something is (in this case gift of wealth) until it is gone.