Once a farmer bought a goose from the market. She looked like all the other geese, so he did not know that there was anything special about the goose. He carried her home and put her in a large basket in the shed.
The goose made a comfortable nest in the basket. One morning, when the farmer went in, he saw that there was a glow in the dingy shed. It seemed to come from the basket.
He lifted the goose and saw a large bright yellow egg that glittered and gleamed. It was extremely heavy. ‘Something’s wrong with this egg,’ he thought. Then he decided to take it into his cottage and check before he threw it away
When he took it out into the light, he got a terrific shock. The egg was made of pure gold! The farmer rubbed his eyes because he simply could not believe what he saw! He put the egg carefully into a basket and took it to the market to sell.
Every morning, he found one golden egg in the goose’s nest. And every day, he became more and more prosperous. He was soon far richer than he had ever dreamt he would be!
But unfortunately, as he became richer, the farmer became more and more greedy too. And he also became lazy. Earlier, he used to work hard on his farm. Now, he spent his time waiting for the goose to lay a golden egg daily. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day. He wished to get more and fast.
His farm lay neglected while he went off every day to sell the egg and hoarded all his money in a box that he kept hidden in his cottage. One day, he decided that he would get all the eggs at once instead of merely getting one every day
The next morning, he killed the goose. But when he opened her up, he did not find a single golden egg inside her. He howled with misery, but it was no use. There was no goose and no more golden eggs!
