The Golden Goose

There was a goose which had beautiful golden feathers. Not far from its nest lived an old woman and her two daughters. They were so poor that they never had enough to eat. The goose felt sorry for them and thought “If I give them one of my feathers each week, they can sell it and live comfortably on the money they get.”The goose flew to the old woman’s house next morning but as soon as the old woman saw the goose she said “Go away, go away! I have nothing to give you.” But the goose said “I don’t want anything from you, old woman. 

I have come to give you something because I feel sorry for you and your daughters. Take this feather and sell it in the market. You can live comfortably on the money you get.”And the goose gave her one of its golden feathers. The old woman took it to the market and sold it for twenty gold coins. Her daughters and she had enough money now to buy food and clothes for themselves. They were very happy. Next week the goose returned and gave the old woman another golden feather. The old woman sold it for forty gold coins and bought food, clothes and many other things for herself and her daughters.

And so it went on for many months: the goose presented the old woman with a golden feather each week, which she sold at a very good price. Soon, she had become rich.

But now the old woman has became greedy. She said to herself: “The goose given me only one feather each week and I have to wait a whole week for it to return. This is very, very slow! It will take me many years to sell all the feathers that the goose has. Besides, it may stop coming to me. What will happen then? I must do something.”

  Next week, when the goose returned, the old woman grabbed hold of it and started pulling out its feathers one by one. Her daughters saw what she was doing and tried to stop her, but she would not listen to them. Soon, all the feathers had been pulled out. The goose was dead.

The old woman looked at the pile of feathers. “I will take them to the market and sell them,” she said. “Now we can really live in comfort!”

She looked again at the pile of feathers, and what did she see? The feathers were no longer golden but had turned into ordinary white feathers! The old woman’s greed had become her undoing.