The Dog And His Reflection

A dog, crossing a bridge over a stream with a piece of flesh in his mouth, saw his own shadow in the water and took it for that of another Dog, with a piece of meat double his own in size.

He immediately let go of his own, and fiercely attacked the other Dog to get his larger piece from him.

He thus lost both: that which he grasped at in the water, because it was a shadow; and his own, because the stream swept it away.

The dog regretted bitterly, for he soon realised that it was only his own reflection in the water.

Moral


The cost of greed is the complete loss of all happiness.