A long time ago, before the world was created
and humans set foot on it for the first time, and
vices & virtues floated around and were bored, not
knowing what to do. One day, all the vices and virtues
were gathered together and were more bored than ever.
Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: "Let's play
hide and seek!"

All of them liked the idea and immediately
Madness shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!"
And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek
Madness, all the others agreed.

Madness leaned against a tree and started to
count: "One, two, three..." As Madness counted, the
vices and virtues went hiding.
Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon...
Treason hid in a pile of garbage... Fondness curled
up between the clouds...and Passion went to the centre
of the earth.... Lie said that it would hide under a
stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake... whilst
Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking.

And Madness continued to count: .... "seventy
nine, eighty, eighty one..." By this time, all the
vices and virtues were already hidden - except Love.
For undecided as Love is, he could not decide where to
hide. And this should not surprise us, because we all
know how difficult it is to hide Love. Madness:
"...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..." Just
when Madness got to one hundred.........Love jumped
into a rose bush where he hid. And Madness turned
around and shouted: "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

As Madness turned around, Laziness was the
first to be found, because Laziness had no energy to
hide. Then he spotted Tenderness in the horn of the
moon, Lie at the bottom of the lake and Passion at the
centre of the earth.

One by one, Madness found them all - except
Love. Madness was getting desperate, unable to find
Love. Envious of Love, Envy whispered to Madness: "You
only need to find Love and Love is hiding in the rose
bush."

Madness grabbed a wooden pitch fork and stabbed
wildly at the rosebush. Madness stabbed and stabbed
until a heartbreaking cry made him stop. Love appeared
from the rose bush, covering his face with his hands.
Between his fingers ran two trickles of blood from his
eyes.
Madness, so anxious to find Love, had stabbed out
Love's eyes with a pitch fork.

"What have I done! What have I done!" Madness
shouted. "I have left you blind! How can I repair it?"
And Love answered: "You cannot repair my eyes. But if
you want to do something for me, you can be my guide."
And so it came about that from that day on, Love is
blind and is always accompanied by Madness.