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Short Stories
 

      Avaricious and Envious


There were two neighbors who came to Jupiter and prayed him to grant their wishes.

 Now the one was full of greediness, and the other eaten up with jealousy.

So to punish them both, Jupiter granted wishes to them that each might have whatever they wished for themselves, but only on condition that his neighbor had twice as much.

The Avaricious man wished to have a room full of gold.

No sooner said than it was done; all his joy turned to grief when he found that his neighbor had two rooms full of the precious gold.

 Then came the turn of the Envious man, who could not bear to think that his neighbor had any joy at all.

So he prayed that he might have one of his own eyes put out, by which means his companion would become totally blind.

Moral: Vices are their own punishment.