In Search of Truth – Spiritual Story by Paulo Coelho

The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.

“What did he find?” asked one of the friends.

“A piece of Truth,” answered the devil.

The friends were very concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man's soul – one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.

“Aren't you worried?” said one of his companions. “He found a piece of Truth!”

“I'm not worried,” answered the devil.

“Do you know what he'll do with the piece?”

The devil replied, “as usual, he'll create a new religion. And he'll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth.”

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author who has sold more than 100 million books, which include 14 short story collections and the novel “The Alchemist.” He has been a fan of the Internet since the early 1990s. He spends at least three hours a day online, writing e-mails back and forth with his readers and posting photos on Flickr, MySpace and a blog.

Coelho's online activities also include promoting pirated copies of his own books. Since 2005 he's been directing his readers to an online site where they can download his books, in languages from German to Japanese, for free. “I always thought that when, at the beginning of your career, you strive to be read, you can't change your mind later and become greedy about it.”