Aesop's Fables

The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

Yesterday I shared one of my favorite tales from Aesop's Fables. 

I decided to share another today, 

one that I remember my mom reading to us when we were small:

"The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs."

I think of it from time to time mainly because my neighborhood

is one populated by a good many geese 

with their tiny yellow goslings each the spring.

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

One day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found

there an egg all yellow and glittering.  When he took it up it was

as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he

thought a trick had been played upon him.  But he took it home on

second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg

of pure gold.  Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon

became rich by selling his eggs.  

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

As he grew rich he grew greedy;

and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he

killed it and opened it only to find nothing.

And the moral of the story is:

Greed oft o'er reaches itself.

Good advice, even after all these centuries.

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