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 ...