An angel hears his plea and appears to him.
"Sorry, but you can't
take your wealth with you."
The man implores the angel to speak to
God to see if He might bend the rules.
The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him.
The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided
to allow him to take one suitcase with him.
Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure
gold bars and places it beside his bed.
Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven
to greet St. Peter. St. Peter seeing the suitcase says,
"Hold on,
you can't bring that in here!"
But, the man explains to St. Peter that he has permission and asks
him to verify his story with the Lord.
Sure enough, St. Peter checks
and comes back saying, "You're right.
You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its
contents before letting it through."
St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the
man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims,
"You brought
pavement?!!!"