A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything, they had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other, except that the old woman had a shoe box in the top of her cupboard that she had cautioned her husband never to open and never to ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the old woman got very sick and the doctor said she might not recover.
Now, in trying to sort out their affairs, the old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside.
She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two knitted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000.
He was stunned, and asked her about the contents. 'When we were to be married,' she said,'my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and knit a doll.
The old man was so moved he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him twice in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.
'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'
'Oh,' she said, 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls.'