The Dog & the Shadow
It happened that a Dog had got a piece of
meat and was carrying it home in his mouth
to eat it in peace. Now, on his way home he
had to cross a plank lying across a running
brook. As he crossed, he looked down and
saw his own shadow reflected in the water
beneath. Thinking it was another dog with
another piece of meat, he made up his mind
to have that also. So he made a snap at the
the shadow in the water, but as he opened his
mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into
the water and was never seen more.
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping
at the shadow.
Steve and his greed: flickr
One day, an old man challenged Steve to a game of poker. The old man bet Steve that if he won the game of poker, Steve could have his very successful company. However, if Steve lost the game of poker, the old man would win Steve's company. Steve thought this was a fair bet as both of their companies were very successful. Steve had also been thinking about starting another company so he liked the idea of winning a company instead. Steve had also played poker quite a few times and he felt that he was good enough to play against his opponent especially with his opponent being old. However, what Steve did not know was that the old man he was playing was one of the greatest poker players in the world. The two men sat down to play poker and the game did not last very long. The old man quickly played a Straight Flush and won the game. When Steve came home, he told his wife what had happened and she was so angry and fed up with his games that she decided to leave him. Steve decided to do some research on the old man he played and he found out that the old man did not own a company after all. Steve realized that his greed had caused him to play a silly game for nothing and he was devasted because he lost everything.
Author's Note: The original story talked about a dog who carried a piece of meat in his mouth. When he saw his shadow, he took a snap at his shadow which he thought was another dog with another piece of meat. In his greed of trying to take another piece of meat, the dog lost the piece of meat he already. I obviously took my story very far from the original story but I tried to keep with the main moral of the story. I took the moral of the original story to be: don't be greedy and overlook what you already have or otherwise, you might lose everything.
Bibliography: The original story is titled "The Dog & The Shadow" and is found in the book Aesop's Fables on page 29
Ooh, I like your take on the original story! I think you did awesome and used gambling as a great example because it follows the theme hand in hand. You described Steve's personality well and made it easy to understand what kind of character he was. You also did well to show the consequences of greed. It was easy to make the connections between the two stories, so great job!
ReplyDeleteI like how you took the lesson from the original story and put it into a real life situation. In the original story, all the dog lost was some meat, but the man in your story lost everything he had. This helped the lesson on greed really hit home. It was also cool how you used the act of gambling to represent his greed.
ReplyDeleteI like how you began the story post with a poem, now I do not know if that is the actual original story or not but the message of greed is certainly clear. The transition you made from the original story to one that has a more modern and human interest was well done. The message concerning greed was certainly made and understood by the reader.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true again. People always want more and there really is no end to people's wishes. The more the people have the more greedy they are and chasing after something more when they have more than enough can be the cause of someone's downfall. He wanted more and ended up losing what he had. People should have dreams but they should also be content with the stuff they have now.
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