The Goose And The Golden Egg

鹅与金蛋

by Aesop

出自《伊索寓言》

There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.

从前啊，有个乡下人拥有一只你根本无法想象的稀世宝鹅，每天只要他去鹅的窝里一看，那只鹅总会诞下一个美丽无比、闪闪发光的黄金蛋。

The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the Goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day. He was not getting rich fast enough.

这个乡下人就把这些金蛋拿到集市上去卖，很快就因此富裕了。不过，他很快就变得不耐烦了，因为这只鹅每天才给他下了一个金蛋。他是变富了，可是钱来的太慢了。

Then one day, after he had finished counting his money, the idea came to him that he could get all the golden eggs at once by killing the Goose and cutting it open. But when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious Goose was dead.

后来就有一天嘛，像个守财奴一样数完手上的钱后，他脑壳里突然冒出个主意，以为杀掉这只鹅然后把它开膛破肚，就能得到所有的金蛋。然而，在他这么做了之后，却没有在鹅肚子里发现任何一个金蛋，而且还害死了自己的鹅宝贝。

Those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have.

正所谓：贪多必失。