There was a poor man who lived with his wife. One day, the man and his wife found a beautiful goose. To their good fortune, when they took this goose, they found it laid eggs. But its eggs were completely different from the eggs of other birds, as it laid a golden egg every day. The couple was happy with this fortune, but they believed they would only become rich after a long time.
The couple didn’t have enough patience to benefit from the golden egg that the goose laid every day. They thought that receiving only one egg every day wouldn’t make them rich. The couple was thinking of a way that would make them rich as quickly as possible.
The couple thought that since this goose was able to produce a golden egg every day, it must certainly be made of gold inside. This made them think of obtaining all the gold metal at once without waiting too long to get a large quantity of gold. So the couple decided to kill that goose and open its stomach to get the gold.
The couple believed the goose was filled with gold inside, but they were extremely shocked when they killed the goose, as they found no gold inside it as they had believed. They felt great sadness because they lost the goose that was laying a golden egg every day. This was because they lost everything and didn’t think before committing this action, and they were left with nothing. They learned that what happened was the result of greed and haste without thinking when making decisions.
The English proverb that expresses this story:
The proverb says: “Don’t kill the goose that lays golden eggs,” and in English: “kill not the goose that lays golden eggs.” The proverb speaks of the situation of these two who lost everything in a moment of hasty thinking. It addresses all people who don’t look at what they have, but instead yearn for more until they lose everything in a moment.
The story is translated from English under the title: The Goose With The Golden Eggs