a woman came out of her house and saw three old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. she did not recognize them. she said, "i don't think i know you, but you must be hungry. please come in and have something to eat."

"is the man of the house home?", they asked. "no", she replied, "he's out." "then we cannot come in", they replied. in the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. "go tell them i am home and invite them in!" the woman went out and invited the men in. "we do not go into a house together," they replied. "why is that?" she asked.

one of the old men explained: "his name is wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, "and he is success, and i am love." then he added, "now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

the woman went in and told her husband what was said. her husband was overjoyed. "how nice!", he said. "since that is the case, let us invite wealth. let him come and fill our home with wealth!" his wife disagreed. "my dear, why don't we invite success?" their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. she jumped in with her own suggestion: "wouldn't it be better to invite love? our home will then be filled with love." "let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife. "go out and invite love to be our guest."

the woman went out and asked the three old men, "which one of you is love? please come in and be our guest."

love got up and started walking toward the house.

the other two also got up and followed him. surprised, the lady asked wealth and success: "i only invited love, why are you coming in?"

the old men replied together: "if you had invited wealth or success, the other two of us would have stayed out, but since you invited love, wherever he goes, we go with him. wherever there is love, there is also wealth and success!"

 三个白须飘然的老人坐在妇人家院前歇脚，三人中，一个是“财富”，一个是“成功”，一个是“爱”。妇人邀请他们进屋，三个老者笑呵呵地谢了她，身子却没动。

    妇人惑然。三个老人说：“我们不能同时进屋呀！不过，你可以去和你的家人商量，看你们最需要我们中的哪一个。”

    妇人便进屋把老人的话说了。丈夫惊喜道：“既然如此，我们就邀请财富老人吧，请他进来，让我们的屋里装满财富！”

    妇人不同意：“亲爱的，我们为什么不邀请成功老人呢？做一切事情都能成功，那感觉会有多好！”

    这时候，儿媳插嘴进来，说：“我们还是邀请爱吧，让我们的家时时处处都充满爱。”

    “那我们就听儿媳的吧！”一对夫妇朝儿媳点点头。

    于是妇人出门，邀请爱的老人进屋作客。谁知爱的老人起身，成功老人和财富老人也都跟在后面。妇人感到惊讶：“我们邀请的是‘爱’，你们两位怎么也一起来了？”

    三个老人乐了：“哪里有爱，哪里就有财富和成功！”