The Magic cup Paradox

A man who found a magic cup and learned 
that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls. 

But even though he had always been poor, 
he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear. 
So he found ways to make himself sad so 
that his tears could make him rich. As the 
pearls piled up, so did his greed grow. 

The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain 
of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into 
the cup with his beloved wife's slain body in his arms.

"Well," he said, "if I may ask, why did the 
man kill his wife? In fact, why did he ever have 
to feel sad to shed tears? 
Couldn't he have just smelled an onion?"
There could be other solutions to our problems
than just sorrow.