But the lesson it taught Franklin was cheap in the end. “AsI grew up，” he said， “and came into the world and observed theactions of men， I thought I met with many， very many， who gavetoo much for the whistle. In short， I conceive that a great partof the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the falseestimates they have made of the value of things， and by theirgiving too much for their whistles.
Gilbert and Sullivan paid too much for their whistle. So didAunt Edith. So did Dale Carnegie—on many occasions. And so didthe immortal Leo Tolstoy， author of two of the world’s greatestnovels， War and Peace and Anna Karenina. According to TheEncyclopedia Britannica， Leo Tolstoy was， during the last twentyyears of his life， “probably the most venerated man in the wholeworld.” For twenty years before he died—from 1890 to 1910—anunending stream of admirers made pilgrimages to his home inorder to catch a glimpse of his face， to hear the sound of his voice，or even touch the hem of his garment. Every sentence he utteredwas taken down in a notebook， almost as if it were a “divinerevelation”. But when it came to living—to ordinary living—well，Tolstoy had even less sense at seventy than Franklin had at seven！
He had no sense at all.
Here’s what I mean. Tolstoy married a girl he loved very dearly.
In fact， they were so happy together that they used to get on theirknees and pray to God to let them continue their lives in suchsheer， heavenly ecstasy. But the girl Tolstoy married was jealous by nature. She used to dress herself up as a peasant and spy onhis movements， even out in the woods. They had fearful rows. Shebecame so jealous， even of her own children， that she grabbed agun and shot a hole in her daughter’s photograph. She even rolledon the floor with an opium bottle held to her lips， and threatenedto commit suicide， while the children huddled in a corner of theroom and screamed with terror.
And what did Tolstoy do？ Well， I don’t blame the man for upand smashing the furniture—he had good provocation. But hedid far worse than that. He kept a private diary！ Yes， a diary， inwhich he placed all the blame on his wife！ That was his “whistle”！
He was determined to make sure that coming generations wouldexonerate him and put the blame on his wife. And what did hiswife do， in answer to this？ Why， she tore pages out of his diaryand burned them， of course. She started a diary of her own， inwhich she made him the villain. She even wrote a novel， entitledWhose Fault？ in which she depicted her husband as a householdfiend and herself as a martyr.
All to what end？ Why did these two people turn the only homethey had into what Tolstoy himself called “a lunatic asylum”？
Obviously， there were several reasons. One of those reasonswas their burning desire to impress you and me. Yes， we are theposterity whose opinion they were worried about！ Do we givea hoot in Hades about which one was to blame？ No， we are tooconcerned with our own problems to waste a minute thinkingabout the Tolstoy’s. What a price these two wretched people paidfor their whistle！ Fifty years of living in a veritable hell—justbecause neither of them had the sense to say： “Stop！” Becauseneither of them had enough judgment of values to say： “Let’s puta stoploss order on this thing instantly. We are squandering ourlives. Let’s say ‘Enough’ now！”
Yes， I honestly believe that this is one of the greatest secretsto true peace of mind—a decent sense of values. And I believewe could annihilate fifty per cent of all our worries at once if wewould develop a sort of private gold standard—a gold standard ofwhat things are worth to us in terms of our lives.
So， to break the worry habit before it breaks you， here is Rule 5：
Whenever we are tempted to throw good money after bad interms of human living， let’s stop and ask ourselves these threeQuestions：
1. How much does this thing I am worrying about really matterto me？
2. At what point shall I set a “stop-loss” order on this worry—and forget it？
3. Exactly how much shall I pay for this whistle？ Have I alreadypaid more than it is worth？