Wiggly Worm loved to wiggle. He wiggled through the garden, he wiggled under the leaves, and he especially loved to wiggle through the cool, damp earth.
One sunny morning, as Wiggly was wiggling under a big, red rose, he saw something sparkle. It was a coin! Shiny and round, it gleamed in the sunlight that peeked through the petals.
“Ooh!” Wiggly gasped (or as much as a worm can gasp). “A treasure!” He wiggled all around the coin, his little worm heart thumping with excitement.
“This is my treasure now,” he thought. “I’ll keep it safe and secret.”
He wiggled the coin back to his cozy little dirt tunnel and hid it under a pile of leaves. Every day, he would visit his treasure, just to admire its sparkle.
But as the days went by, Wiggly started to feel a little bit…well, squirmy. He kept thinking about the coin. He wondered who it belonged to. He felt a bit guilty.
One afternoon, he saw his friend, Hoppy Frog, sitting sadly on a lily pad.
“What’s wrong, Hoppy?” asked Wiggly, wiggling up to the edge of the pond.
Hoppy sighed. “I lost my lucky coin,” he croaked. “It was so shiny, and I loved to flip it up in the air and catch it. I think it fell out of my pocket when I was playing near the rose bush yesterday. I don’t like losing things.”
Wiggly’s heart did a little flip-flop inside him. He knew exactly where Hoppy’s coin was.
“I…I think I might have found something near the rose bush,” Wiggly stammered, his voice barely a whisper.
Hoppy’s eyes widened. “You did? What?”
Wiggly took a deep breath. “It’s a coin…a shiny one.”
Hoppy hopped off the lily pad and bounced over to Wiggly. “Show me!”
Wiggly wiggled back to his dirt tunnel and pulled out the sparkling coin.
Hoppy gasped. “That’s it! That’s my lucky coin!” He grabbed it with his long, sticky tongue and held it up to the sun. “Oh, Wiggly, thank you! You found it!”
Wiggly felt a big weight lift off his wormy shoulders. He felt much better.
“I was going to keep it,” he admitted, “But it didn’t feel right. It feels better to give it back to you.”
Hoppy smiled. “You’re a good friend, Wiggly,” he said. “You know what? I’ll let you flip it with me!”
And so, Wiggly and Hoppy flipped the shiny coin together, laughing and playing in the sunshine. Wiggly learned that day that being honest and kind feels much better than keeping secrets and treasures all to yourself. It made everything much shinier.
