A completing story about a greedy man who lost everything by trying to get rich too quickly.

The story begins: Once there lived a poor farmer who had a goose. To his great surprise, one morning he found that the goose had laid a bright golden egg.

The Story

The farmer could hardly believe his eyes. He picked up the shining egg, took it to the market and sold it for a good price. With that money he bought food and clothes for his family.

The next morning he ran to the goose, and once again he found a golden egg in the nest. Day after day the wonderful goose laid one golden egg, and the farmer sold each of them for a handsome sum.

In a short time the poor farmer became a rich man. He built a fine house, bought land and lived in comfort. His neighbours wondered how he had grown so wealthy so quickly.

But as his riches grew, so did his greed. He was no longer satisfied with a single golden egg each day. He wanted to become rich all at once, without waiting.

He began to think that there must be a great heap of gold inside the goose. "Why should I wait for one egg a day," he said to himself, "when I can have all the gold at once?"

Blinded by his greed, he made up his mind to cut the goose open and take out all the gold together. He caught the poor bird and killed it with a sharp knife.

But when he cut it open, he found nothing inside. The goose was just like any other bird, with no gold at all. There was not a single golden egg to be seen.

Only then did the foolish farmer realise his terrible mistake. By killing the goose, he had lost even the one golden egg a day that he used to get. His greed had ruined him.

He wept bitterly over his loss, but it was too late. Soon he became as poor as he had been before, and he spent the rest of his days regretting his foolish greed.

Moral: Greed is a curse.