Once upon a time there lived a poor peasant. He was too old to work. One day, he was standing on the road, cold and hungry. Suddenly a stranger appeared before him, carrying a beautiful white goose. “Take care of my goose,” said the stranger, “and my goose will take care of you.”
The peasant took the goose home and gave her water to drink and his last handful of oatmeal to eat. When the goose had finished her supper, the old man made her a nest of warm sweet hay to sleep in.
The next morning when the peasant woke up, his first concern was the goose. To his surprise, he found in the nest a beautiful golden egg newly laid. He picked it up and hurried off to the nearest market and sold it for a great sum of money.
The next morning the same thing happened, and the next, and the next. With the eggs he got every day, the peasant was able to buy beautiful clothes and build a new house.
But his riches began to turn the peasant’s head. He grew hard and greedy. He wished to have all the eggs inside the goose at once instead of receiving seven a week. So he cruelly killed the goose. But there was not a single egg inside the white body!
Just then the stranger appeared again. He picked up the dead goose and carried it away. He did not say anything but he looked at the peasant reproachfully. Soon the greedy peasant became as poor as before, for never again was he able to have the beautiful golden eggs.
