The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs

Told in English, Telugu.

Long, long ago, in a small village beside green paddy fields, there lived a poor farmer named Somaiah and his wife Lakshmamma. Their house was tiny, with a roof of dry palm leaves, and their meals were simple. Some days there was rice with a little pickle, and some days there was only ragi java. But they had a few hens, one old buffalo, and one beautiful white goose. Her name was Mallika.

Mallika had soft white feathers and a bright orange beak. Every morning she waddled to the little pond behind the house, honking happily, and every evening she came home to her nest of straw in the shed.

One morning, Somaiah went to the shed to look for eggs. He bent down to Mallika's nest and stopped. Something was shining in the straw. Something yellow and glittering.

He picked it up. It was an egg, but it was so heavy! As heavy as a stone from the river.

"What is this?" he grumbled. "Some naughty boy from the village must be playing a trick on me. A yellow stone egg! Who needs it?"

He lifted his arm to throw it far into the field. But then he paused. The egg glowed so warmly in the morning sun. Hmm, he thought. Let me show it to Lakshmamma first.

Lakshmamma was sweeping the front yard. When she saw the egg, she dropped her broom.

"Ayyo! Somaiah garu, this looks like gold!"

"Gold? Don't be silly," said Somaiah. But his heart was beating fast.

So they wrapped the egg in an old cloth and walked all the way to the goldsmith in the next town. The goldsmith turned the egg this way and that way. He tapped it. He weighed it. Then he looked up with very round eyes.

"This is pure gold," he said. "Real, pure gold."

Somaiah and Lakshmamma could hardly believe it. They sold the egg, and with the money they bought rice, dal, vegetables, a new sari for Lakshmamma, and a sweet jangiri for each of them. They walked home laughing all the way.

And guess what? The next morning, there was another golden egg in Mallika's nest. And the morning after that, another one. Every single day, Mallika laid one shining golden egg.

Little by little, Somaiah and Lakshmamma's life changed. They built a strong new house with a tiled roof. They bought two fine bullocks and more land. At Sankranti, they made a mountain of ariselu and shared it with everyone in the village. Lakshmamma was very happy. She would stroke Mallika's soft feathers and say, "Thank you, my dear one. You have given us so much."

But Somaiah was changing too. At first, one golden egg a day made him smile. But soon, it did not feel like enough.

Every morning he would stand by the nest, tapping his foot. "Only one egg again? Why only one? The rich man in town has a big house with ten rooms. I want a house like that. And I want it now, not after many years!"

Can you guess what Somaiah was becoming? Yes. He was becoming greedy.

One night, Somaiah could not sleep. He lay on his mat, staring at the ceiling, thinking and thinking.

"Mallika gives one golden egg every day," he whispered to himself. "So she must have a great pile of gold inside her. If I open her up, I can take it all at once! Then I will be the richest man in the whole land."

The next morning, he took a big knife from the kitchen and marched towards the shed.

Lakshmamma saw him and ran after him. "Somaiah garu! What are you doing with that knife?"

"I am going to get all the gold out of that goose," he said. "Why should we wait every day for just one egg?"

"No, no!" cried Lakshmamma. "Please don't! She is our friend. She has given us everything. Be patient. One egg a day is more than enough!"

But Somaiah would not listen. He pushed open the shed door.

Mallika was sitting in her nest. She looked up at Somaiah. She looked at the shining knife in his hand. And she knew. Her kind farmer was not kind anymore.

Somaiah reached out to grab her. Will he catch her? Oh, what will happen?

Just then, Mallika spread her big white wings. Flap, flap, flap! She flew right past Somaiah's hands, out through the open door, up over the coconut trees, higher and higher into the blue sky.

"Come back!" shouted Somaiah, running into the yard. "Mallika, come back!"

But Mallika did not come back. She became a tiny white dot in the sky, and then she was gone.

The next morning, Somaiah ran to the shed. The nest was empty. The morning after that, it was empty again. There were no more golden eggs. Not one.

Somaiah sat down on the ground and held his head in his hands. "What have I done?" he said softly. "I wanted everything at once, and now I have lost everything."

Lakshmamma sat down beside him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We still have our house, and our fields, and each other," she said. "Let us work hard and be thankful for what we have."

So Somaiah picked up his plough and went back to his fields. He worked hard every day, and he never forgot the lesson Mallika had taught him. And sometimes, in the evenings, when a white bird flew across the orange sky, Lakshmamma would look up and smile, hoping that Mallika had found a happy pond somewhere far away.

So remember, my dear, when good things come to you slowly, one by one, be patient and be thankful. Wanting too much, too fast, can make you lose it all.