“Cast your bread upon the surface of the water, for in the course of time you will find it,” advised King Solomon.[1]

Far from counseling us to produce soggy bread, the wise monarch is talking about an investment, and while he doesn’t specify a rate of return, he is telling us we can indeed expect one. He is counselling us to invest: to invest in others, in ourselves, to try to effect some good through our creative contributions to the world, but – and here’s why the bread goes into the water – to do so in a way that may seem hopeless. If you throw your bread in the water, you know it will never reconstitute as edible bread. If you give food to a hungry stranger, you don’t expect to see him ever again.

Paradoxically, King Solomon is teaching that if you disregard your instinct for calculating return on investment and instead focus on the good that you can do, then days will yet come, and you will receive your recompense.

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[1] Kohelet 11:1.