A long, long time ago, there was a beautiful goose with shiny golden feathers living in a lake. Near the lake lived a poor old woman and her two daughters. They worked very hard, but they were still very poor.

One day, the golden goose thought, “I should give the old woman a golden feather. She can sell it and have enough money!” So, the next day, the goose flew to the old woman.

“I have nothing to give you!” cried the old woman.

“But I have something for you!” said the kind goose, and explained his plan.

The old woman loved the idea! The next day, she and her daughters went to market and sold the feather. They came home happy with lots of money!

Day after day, the kind goose helped the family. The daughters loved to play with the goose, and they took good care of him, especially during rainy and cold days.

But as time passed, the old woman became greedy. “One feather isn’t enough!” she told her daughters. “We need more! Tomorrow, when the goose comes, we’ll take all his feathers!”

Her daughters didn’t like this idea, but the old woman insisted.

The next day, the old woman waited for the goose. When he arrived, she grabbed him and started pulling out his feathers. As she pulled, the golden feathers turned white!

The old woman cried. She let the goose go.

“You became greedy!” said the goose. “You took my feathers without my permission, so they turned white!” The angry goose flew away and was never seen again.

The moral of the story: Greed causes a lot of harm. We should be happy with what we have and work hard to get more, but not be greedy!