There once was a boy who wanted many things. Walking down the street everywhere he turned he saw things that he wanted. He couldn’t go a block without finding something he coveted. But even on finding something his attention soon turned to a different item. He felt his desires could never be filled and wanted to collect his desires as soon as possible. But he did not know how.
A magician lived at the dodgy end of town. He was known for his parlor tricks but some say he had real magic. The boy had heard of this and went to see the magician for help. The magician had no time for the boy, he was busy, and considered the boys presence a nuisance. But the boy was persistent and kept talking about his longings and the articles he wanted.
The magician grew weary and took the boy outside. As they were heading out the boy said, “I wish I had …”, upon which the magician interrupted. If it’s only wished you desire that’s easy, “you only need a wishing star”. He looked up at the night sky and found the biggest star rising out of the East. He told the boy, “You can make a wish upon this rising star, but you must make the same wish every night until the wish comes true, only when your wish comes true may you have another wish”. The boy thought this was easy and went away excited for all he could wish for, knowing it would soon be his.
The next evening the boy went out and wished for a dog on the rising star. He did this again the next night and the night after that. He soon started to see dogs everywhere. There were big dogs and small dogs it seems on every street. He started to notice that there were more dogs at the west side of town and he went there more, often bringing left over scraps with him. He continued to make the same wish every night. On the seventh night, he noticed a dog was following him. When he got to his house, the dog was right behind him. He let the dog in, fed him and they have been together ever since.
Now the boy moved on to another wish, he wanted a bicycle. He went out in the evening with his new wish and wished upon a star. After several nights the boy started to see bicycles everywhere. There were bicycles of many colors and sizes. He noticed, it seems, every bicycle on every street. After the seventh night he noticed a red bicycle in a shop window just like the one he wanted. It was on sale for half price and the boy had enough money to buy the bike, which he did on the spot and rode the bicycle excitedly home.
Now he could wish for something else. But he got thinking if there were only a certain number of wishes he could make what did he want most. He made a list of those things most important to him. He then went back to the magician. He eagerly told the magician all that had happened and relayed his trepidation that he would run out of wishes that would be granted. The magician laughed. “How many wishes do you think you will get”, he asked. The boy replied, “In the story about the magic lamp there was only three wishes, that would mean I only have one left.”
The magician looked at the boy carefully saying, “The magic is not in the star, the magic is in you. By focusing on one wish until you got it, you made that wish come true. You kept looking for opportunities for making the wish come true. All you need to do is focus and look for opportunity and any wish you want will come true.”