The Richest Man in Babylon

Money lessons told as parables

George S. Clason was an American businessman and publisher. Starting in 1926, he wrote a series of pamphlets about thrift and financial success, set in ancient Babylon. Banks and insurance companies gave them away to customers. The pamphlets were later collected into this book.

Clason chose Babylon because he saw it as the richest city of the ancient world, built by people who used money wisely. The book is a set of linked parables. Each chapter tells a story about merchants, craftsmen, lenders and slaves, and each story carries one rule. The language is deliberately old-fashioned, with "thy" and "thou," which makes the rules easy to remember.

The core message fits in one line: a part of all you earn is yours to keep. Save at least one tenth of your income, make that money work for you, protect it from loss and keep learning to earn more.

The man who desired gold and the richest man

The book opens with Bansir, a chariot builder, and his friend Kobbi, a musician. Both have worked hard all their lives, yet they have nothing saved. They are puzzled, because a childhood friend of theirs, Arkad, is now the richest man in Babylon. They decide to ask him how he did it.

Arkad tells his story. As a young man, he was a scribe who carved records on clay tablets. A wealthy moneylender named Algamish needed a long law copied quickly. Arkad worked through the night in exchange for Algamish's secret of wealth. The secret was: a part of all you earn is yours to keep. Algamish told him to keep at least one tenth of everything he earned. He argued that people pay everyone else (the baker, the tailor, the landlord) but forget to pay themselves.

Arkad's early attempts went wrong in ways that teach their own lessons:

• He gave his first year of savings to Azmur, a brickmaker, to buy jewels from Phoenician traders. The jewels turned out to be worthless glass. Algamish asked why Arkad would trust a brickmaker for advice on jewels. Lesson: take advice from people who know the field.
• He saved again but spent the earnings on feasts and fine clothes. Lesson: the money your savings earn should also be put to work, so it compounds.

Over time, Arkad learned to save, invest carefully and let his money grow. Algamish later trusted him with a share of his own affairs. Arkad tells Bansir and Kobbi that the method is open to anyone who will follow it with discipline.

The seven cures for a lean purse

In the best-known chapter, the king of Babylon asks Arkad to teach his methods so that more citizens prosper. Arkad teaches a class of one hundred men over seven days. Each day covers one cure for a lean purse:

1. Start thy purse to fattening. For every ten coins you put in, take out only nine. Save one tenth of all you earn.
2. Control thy expenditures. Arkad warns that what we call necessary expenses will grow to match our income unless we resist. Budget so that you pay for real needs and some real wants, but never touch the saved tenth.
3. Make thy gold multiply. Put savings to work so they earn more. Arkad describes lending to a shield maker who repays with interest, then reinvesting the gains.
4. Guard thy treasures from loss. Protect your principal first. Invest only where it is safe and where you can get it back. Seek advice from people experienced in handling money.
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment. Own your home. Arkad argues that a family that owns its home lives better and pays itself instead of a landlord.
6. Insure a future income. Provide for old age and for your family in case you die. Arkad mentions savings stored over time and other ways to make sure income continues.
7. Increase thy ability to earn. Keep learning and improve your skills. The more you know, the more you can earn and save.

Luck, the laws of gold and lending

Meet the Goddess of Good Luck. At a discussion in the Temple of Learning, Arkad leads a group that asks how to attract luck. They tell stories of chances they missed because they delayed. One man wanted to buy a flock of sheep at a good price but waited until morning, and someone else bought it. The group agrees that procrastination is the enemy of fortune. Luck, Arkad concludes, favors people who act on opportunity.

The Five Laws of Gold. A caravan leader named Kalabab tells the story of Nomasir, Arkad's son. Arkad gave Nomasir a bag of gold and a clay tablet with five laws, and sent him out to prove himself. Nomasir lost the gold to bad bets and dishonest schemes. He then took a job, followed the laws and returned years later with far more than he started with. The laws say that gold:

• comes gladly to anyone who saves at least one tenth of earnings for the future;
• works hard for an owner who finds it profitable employment;
• stays with a cautious owner who invests it under the advice of wise people;
• slips away from an owner who invests in businesses or purposes they do not understand;
• flees from an owner who forces it into impossible earnings, follows the advice of tricksters or trusts their own inexperience.

The Gold Lender of Babylon. Rodan, a spearmaker, receives fifty pieces of gold from the king. His sister wants him to lend it to her husband so he can become a merchant. Rodan asks Mathon, a gold lender, for advice. Mathon opens a box of tokens that borrowers left as security and tells the story behind each. The lesson is to lend only to people who have a clear ability to repay, often with security, and never to let affection replace judgment. Mathon sums it up: better a little caution than a great regret.

Protection, debt and determination

The Walls of Babylon. An old warrior named Banzar guards a gate while the Assyrians attack. The great walls hold, and the city survives. Clason uses the walls as a symbol of protection: people need defenses, such as savings and insurance, against the misfortunes that will come.

The Camel Trader of Babylon. A young man named Tarkad is hungry, broke and avoiding the people he owes. He meets Dabasir, a prosperous camel trader, who tells his own story. As a young man, Dabasir lived beyond his means, borrowed from friends and ran away from his debts. He was captured and sold as a slave in Syria. There he realized he had the soul of a slave: he had been running from his problems instead of facing them. He escaped, crossed the desert and returned to Babylon, determined to pay back every debt and become a free man in spirit as well as in law. His lesson: where the determination is, the way can be found.

The Clay Tablets from Babylon. This chapter shifts to the modern era. A fictional archaeology professor in England translates tablets that record Dabasir's plan for repaying debt. The plan divides income into three parts:

• One tenth to keep as savings.
• Seven tenths to live on, for the household.
• Two tenths to repay creditors, shared fairly among them.

The professor and his wife try the plan and pay off their own debts while starting to save. The chapter shows that the ancient rule still works in a modern household.

The value of work

The final story, The Luckiest Man in Babylon, follows Sharru Nada, a wealthy merchant, and Hadan Gula, the grandson of his old partner, Arad Gula. Hadan Gula despises work and wants to live on his inheritance. Sharru Nada tells him how he and Arad Gula rose from slavery. Sharru Nada learned from a fellow slave to love work, earned the trust of his master and saved enough to buy his freedom. The lesson is that hard work, done with pride, is a friend that opens doors. Wealth that is not earned through useful work does not last.

What the critics say

The book is nearly a century old, and some advice reflects its time. The claim that owning a home is always a good investment ignores costs, location and market risk. The guidance on investing is general and says nothing about modern tools such as low-cost index funds, diversification or inflation. The setting is a romanticized version of Babylon, not an accurate history. Some readers also find the stories about slavery uncomfortable, because they treat it as a setting for personal lessons rather than as an injustice. The core habits (save first, spend less than you earn, avoid schemes you do not understand) remain widely accepted.

Who should read it

Read it if you want simple, memorable rules for saving and staying out of debt, or if you are just starting to manage your own money. It is short, and the parables work well for teenagers and adults who find standard personal finance books dry.