Astudent asked his teacher; “What is greed?”

The teacher replied that if you want to know what greed is, “Go to the chocolate factory beside our school and take one chocolate from it, which appeals to you the most. However, the rule is that you cannot go back to the chocolate factory once you have chosen the chocolate and you have to be back in the class once ten minutes have passed or else after that you will not be allowed to eat the chocolate bar.”

The student was pleased with this permission because usually students were not allowed to go to the chocolate factory. Surprised by the permission, the student remained at his seat as he felt that the teacher was being sarcastic.

It was after the teacher insisted the second time that he rose from his seat and walked out of the classroom door. The teacher followed him to the factory. The other students were jealous, but they remained silent.

As the student entered the chocolate factory, which he had last seen a year ago, he was surprised to observe how much it had changed. The place was full of delicious chocolate bars arranged neatly in shelves. Instinctively, the student’s mouth watered and he began to scan the shelves for the biggest chocolate bar.

He liked one chocolate and picked it up, but soon found that there was a bigger one. So he kept the first one down and picked up the bigger one. But since there were so many chocolates all around him, he continued to explore and search for the ideal chocolate he would take. This continued with the student grabbing chocolate bars and then leaving it in search for another one.

In the meantime, ten minutes passed with the student still in the chocolate factory, busy in selecting chocolate bars. The teacher kept silent, as she had expected this. It was not until thirty minutes later that the student realised how much time had passed and hastily grabbed one chocolate bar with partial satisfaction.

Once he was inside the classroom with the teacher, the teacher asked him, “Be honest and tell me are you fully satisfied with your selection of chocolate bar after spending half an hour.”

The students were astonished to see the student shaking his head in disapproval.

Then the teacher answered, “You did like most of the chocolates very much, but still you kept looking for a bigger one. And in this state, you failed to notice that the first chocolate you picked was large enough and its flavour was also very good. That my dear is called greed.”

With this, the teacher took the chocolate from his hand and placed it aside to send back to the chocolate factory.

So readers, the moral of this story is that we should never be greedy for more because then, we let go of many good things in our life because of our gluttony of having even better things. Human nature is such that we always want better and better. But in the search of better, we let go of many good things, which could have given us similar satisfaction and made us happy.

Learn, make your choice wisely and be satisfied what you get. A very blessed Eid to all readers.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 1st, 2020