"Only a Poor Old Man" is a 32-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks.

It was originally published with the one-page gag stories "Osogood Silver Polish", "Coffee for Two", and "Soupline Eight".

"You'd love your money, too, if you got it the way I did – by thinking a little harder than the other guy, by jumping a little quicker –" Scrooge also repeats another of his now-famous mantras: he made his fortune by being "tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties!

After calming down, Scrooge forms a plan: with his nephews' help, he installs a chute that allows him to empty the bin slowly.

When the Beagles finish their building, they eagerly begin their robbery, only to be appalled to find an empty money bin.

The Beagle Boys buy the land in the valley downstream from the lake, showing that their plan is to destroy a dam at the end, causing the water and the money to flow down onto their property.

Third, the Beagle Boys use trained cormorants who first steal beakfuls of change from the lake, then carry napalm bombs toward the dam.

Fourth, the Beagle Boys seed the clouds, causing a thunderstorm, hoping a lightning bolt will be drawn to the metal in the lake, and set the dam ablaze.

Scrooge installs a large lightning rod atop the dam, wired to a cannonball which fires into the Beagle Boys' backyard.

They are unable to repair the dam quickly enough, and it breaks, sending all the money flowing down onto the Beagle Boys' land.

They decide to take a dive in themselves – and end up bashing their heads on the hard, unyielding surface of the coins.

In a 1975 interview, Barks explained the story's origin: "They wrote a letter from the office and asked if I would do a thirty-two-page Scrooge comic book.