Once, there lived four friends in a village. They were very poor. One morning, they met a sage praying near a river. They told him about their suffering. The sage gave them a stone each and said, “Walk towards the Himalayas. Dig wherever the stone drops.” The four friends began their journey. After a while, the stone dropped from the first friend’s hand. They dug the spot and found a chest of copper coins. After some days, the second friend’s stone dropped. There, they found a chest of silver coins. Soon, the third friend’s stone dropped, and they found a chest of gold coins. Three of them said, “We have got what we were looking for and there is enough for us to share. Let’s return home.” But the fourth friend wanted to continue. The other three friends left. After many days, the fourth friend, weary and hungry, saw a man with a wheel spinning on his head. He asked, “Why are you standing here with the wheel on your head?” No sooner had he spoken than the wheel shifted to the fourth friend’s head. He felt miserable and his feet were stuck. He asked the man to remove the wheel. “This wheel of greed shall remain on your head until someone greedy reaches here searching for wealth,” said the man as he walked away.
The Greedy Friend
