The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs

A farmer owned a remarkable goose that laid a single golden egg every morning, and within a short time, selling one precious egg each day, he had grown wealthier than he had ever imagined possible.

But wealth only made him greedier, and impatience soon took hold. "If she lays one golden egg a day," he reasoned, "she must have a whole treasure of gold hidden inside her. Why wait day after day for just one egg, when I could have it all right now?"

He killed the goose and cut her open at once — only to find nothing inside but ordinary goose flesh, no gold at all. In his greed for everything immediately, he had destroyed the very source of the slow, steady fortune he had already been so lucky to have.