If we see things for the angle of untainted truth, we will see that pages of Shas are spread on the walls of our house, pages of mishnayos are spread out all over the chairs and tables, and halachas are stuck to all our pretty clothes. This is not a parable, it is an honest depiction of our situation.

In the next world a person will be asked to expound on what he learned, and enquired why he didn’t learn what he missed. Unfortunately most of us are missing much more than we have, and even what we learned we do not remember well. When a person asks himself truthfully why he didn’t have time to learn what he was expected to learn, he will realize that the money he was given to sit and learn was used for decorating his house with pretty furniture and dressing in fancy clothing. Thus, it is literally true that the means we were given to learn we exchanged with drapes and furniture, clothes and the like. Like small children that happily exchange gold and diamonds for toys and clothes worth a copper coin.