Arjuna could not hold the question back any longer. "But why me?" he asked. "Of all the people in all the world — kings, sages, holy men who have spent their whole lives searching — why would you give this to me, a tired soldier sitting in the dust?"

Krishna laughed softly. It was a warm sound, and it loosened something in Arjuna's chest.

"Do you remember," Krishna said, "when we were younger? The day your chariot wheel cracked in the river, and you waded in up to your waist to free it, and I climbed down to help you push, and we both ended up soaked and laughing while the horses watched us like we were fools?"

Arjuna smiled despite himself. "I remember."

"And the long nights when you could not sleep, and you came and sat by my fire, and we said nothing at all for hours, and that nothing was better than any feast?"

"I remember that too."

"That," said Krishna, "is why you. Not because you are the strongest archer in the world, though you are. Not because you are a prince, though you are that as well. I am giving you this ancient secret because you are my friend, and because your heart is turned toward me even when you are confused, even when you are afraid."

He leaned closer.

"Wisdom like this is not poured into clever heads. It is placed into open hearts. A jewel can be left out in the open and a thief will walk right past it, never seeing it for what it is. But put it in the hands of someone who loves you, and they will know at once that it is priceless."

The morning wind moved across the grass. Somewhere a horse whinnied.

"This is the highest secret there is, Arjuna," Krishna said. "Not hidden behind locked doors or written in books no one can read. Hidden only in plain sight — waiting for a friend with the eyes to see it."

And Arjuna, who had felt so alone a moment ago, felt suddenly that he was the richest man on the whole wide field.