The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

A certain man had a goose filled with some gold producing germ; it often laid a golden egg in the nest. Nature had fixed this limit to the superior fowl, namely that it should not be permitted to lay two eggs at once. But the master anticipating that this source of wealth might vanish from him, did not suffer the delays ruinous to his gains , thinking surely he would get the value of the bird by its death, the value of the bird that was so rich in its unfailing bounty.

After he had plunged the threatening knife into its body which he had already stripped, when he saw that it did not have its usual eggs and that he had been deceived in such a way, he cried aloud. For he suffered the punishment due his own deserts. So it is right to refuse the everyday prayers of those who ask everything of the gods at once.