THE MAGIC BOX

Let me tell you a story. Well, once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who dug up a big box in his field. Then he took it home with him and showed it to his wife. His wife cleaned it and kept it in their home. You know what happened one day? She dropped an apple into it. Immediately the box began to fill up with apples. And no matter how many were taken out, others took their place. Incredible, wasn’t it? So the farmer and his wife sold the apples and were able to live quite comfortably.
Then what happened next? The farmer dropped a coin into the box. At once the apples disappeared and the box begin to fill itself with coins. Everyday, the farmer and his wife collected hundreds and hundreds of dollars from the box. Soon they became very rich.
Now ….the farmer’s grandfather lived with the couple. He was not very strong and he could not go out to work, so the farmer asked the old man to help him take the money out of the box. When his grandfather became tired and wanted to rest, the farmer shouted at him, “Why are you so lazy? Why can’t you work harder? Why?”
The old man did not say anything. He continued working until he fell inside the box and died. Just like what happened before, at once, the money disappeared, and the box began to fill up with dead grandfathers. Scary, wasn’t it?
The farmer had to pull them out and bury them. Well, to do this he had to spend all the money he had collected. When he had used up all the money, the box broke. Just guess! What happened to the farmer? He was just as poor as he was before.

(Favourite stories from Taiwan, Leon Comber & Charles Shuttleworth)