Story on The Consequences of Greed
Once upon a time, there was a king called Midas who was extremely fond of gold. He thought if he had the golden touch, he would be the happiest man. A wish god granted his wish. Just then, an apple fell from a tree before him. He took up the apple and it turned into gold. His joys knew no bounds. He entered his palace in a happy mood. He took his daughter in his arms and she became all gold. The king was greatly shocked. He started shouting in pain. He prayed to his wished god to take away his golden touch. The wish God granted his prayer. The king took his daughter in his arms again and she became flesh and blood. The king became very happy. He could understand that too much greed had taken away his happiness.
or,
Once there lived a poor man. He had a wonderful goose. It laid a golden egg everyday. Though the farmer was poor, he became rich by selling the eggs. But he wanted to be richer overnight. He wanted to get all the eggs lying in its stomach at a time and to be rich overnight by selling the eggs in the local market. As per his imagination and plan, the poor greedy farmer took a. sharp Knife and cut its stomach with it. But to his utter surprise, he found no egg inside the belly of the goose. On the other hand, the goose died. At this, the greedy farmer grew extremely disappointed and lost the valuable goose forever. In fact, far from becoming rich, he became poorer as he had been earlier. He then realized his blunder, but there was no way to get back the wonderful goose. The greedy farmer understood that only his excessive greed was responsible for his misfortune .
Or,
Once upon a time in ancient Greece, there lived a king named Midas. He had a lovely daughter whom he lovingly named Marigold. Although King Midas had immense wealth in his kingdomâs treasury, he was always dissatisfied and unhappy. He was always greedy for more wealth and wished he had more gold in his treasure.
One day as he was counting gold coins and admiring his treasure rooms, a wise Greek God appeared before him who offered the king a wish for some of his good deeds. Without wasting any time, King Midas quickly wished that everything that he touched should turn into gold. The Greek God granted his wish promptly and disappeared.
King Midas was delighted about his wish being granted, he went and touched an apple tree in his garden. To his excitement, the tree turned into gold instantly. He was so thrilled that he went on touching random things all around him, which turned into gold immediately. His joy knew no bounds and he was overwhelmed with excitement. Soon he was hungry and he returned to his palace to eat some food. However, though he was starving, he was disappointed that he could not eat anything as whatever he touched turned into gold instantly.
Seeing him frustrated and troubled, Marigold came running and threw her arms around her father to comfort him. But to his dismay, even his daughter turned into gold as he touched her. King Midasâ face turned pale and his heart sank with unbearable pain and grief. He was horrified upon seeing his daughter turn into a golden statue. He cried in anguish and regretted his wish for the golden touch. In no time, he realised his greed was his biggest ever flaw and begged the Greek God to take back his wish.
Soon the Greek God appeared before him and felt pity for his condition and took back the golden touch wish from him. Further, the wise God instructed King Midas to take a dip in the pond of his palace and sprinkle that water to all those things which he wanted to change back to the previous condition. He blindly followed the instructions and soon his daughter, Marigold was back to normal when he sprinkled the water on her. Thereafter, he was elated to get back his beloved daughter and promised to stop being greedy henceforth.