Once there lived a rogue, who wandered the lands in search of opportunity.  Opportunity and profit, to be precise.  While wandering through some struggling farmlands, the rogue was sure that it would be a long walk indeed before he found any profit or opportunity.

  These thoughts were dismissed when the wandering rogue caught sight of something he had not thought possible.  A peasant farmer was tilling a field, tossing the rocks he hit onto his huge rock pile.  The rogue recognized the giant mound of rock for what it was.. Talos ore!  Properly polished, that small mountain of ore would fetch a king's ransom! The peasant surely had no idea of its value, and would probably use it for some rock wall or hovel...

  The rogue decided he had to liberate this wealth from going unappreciated.  But there was too much of the rock to steal.  Even with his considerable skill, the peasant would surely notice the small mountain moving on its own.  Planning and plotting, the rogue quickly devised a scheme to convince the peasant to hand him that mountain of treasure with a smile on his face.

  The rogue snapped a branch off a nearby tree, and started to whittle a stick from it.  He laid a special spring trap in one of the peasants failing crop fields, and a needle trap with flask of water was placed nearby to the spring trap.

  Carving some funny shapes into the stick and stitching himself up a pointy hat, the rogue smiled and approached the tilling peasant. The rogue introduced himself as a mighty creag mage, interested in the rock that the peasant had accumulated for his studies.

  In exchange for the rock, the rogue offered the peasant a mighty and powerful magical staff that would solve all of his problems!  The peasant scoffed at this claim.  The rogue told the peasant to follow him to see the full power of the staff's magics, and lead the peasant to his traps.

  Pointing at a scrawny plant, the rogue commanded the plant to grow, and slammed the staff into the ground, triggering the spring trap, which shot the buried plant up several feet. The peasant was amazed to see the stalk grow before his eyes.

  The rogue then waved the stick over a parched plant, ordering the earth to produce water for it.  The rogue danced a silly dance, setting off the needle trap.  The trap peirced the buried flask of water, leaking the contents into the ground.  The peasant's jaw dropped as the earth around the parched plant darkened with life-giving water.

  Grinning from ear to ear, the rogue asked the peasant if they now had a deal.  The peasant was so impressed that he even gave the rogue a cart and donkey to haul the rocks off with and helped the rogue load his booty.

  After the cart was filled, the rogue tipped his pointy hat and drove the cart as fast as he could into the distance, to a place he had prepared to hide in and wait out the peasant's wrath when he found the stick to be totally worthless.

  Hiding in concealment, the rouge waited for a full day for the sounds of an angry peasant mob to pass by.  But he heard nothing.

  Puzzled, the rogue crept from shadow to shadow, back towards the peasant's farm, seeking to find out if the coast was clear.  As the rogue approached the farm, he noticed the crops were doing much better, nearly ready for harvest.  The ground was far less parched as well.

  When the rogue reached the field the peasant had been tilling the day before, he was shocked to see the peasant waving the stick about and dancing that silly dance, converting the parched and sickly crops into lush and green fields.

  The rogue could not understand what had happened, for he had no concept of the most basic of lessons in magic:

Miracles are fueled by belief, not trinkets.