“I will do that for you, but you must be very careful to tell me when the bucket is nearly full; for even if one little piece of gold touches the ground, great misery will surely fall upon you.”
Now the elder brother was so greedy that he kept shaking the bucket to get the gold pieces closer together. And when the bucket was nearly full he did not tell the lion, as the younger brother had done, for he wanted all he could get.
Suddenly one of the gold pieces fell upon the ground.
“O,” cried the lion, “a big piece of gold is stuck in my throat. Put your hand in and get it out. It is the largest piece of all.”
The greedy man thrust his hand at once into the lion’s mouth—and the lion snapped his jaws together.
And there the man stayed, for the Lion would not let him go. And the gold in the bucket turned into earth and stones.
When night came, and the husband did not come home, the wife became anxious, and went out to search for him. At last she found him, with his arm held fast in the lion’s mouth. He was tired, cold and hungry. She comforted him as best she could, and brought him some food.
Every day now the wife must go with food for her husband. But there came a day when all the money was gone, and the baby was sick, and the poor woman herself was too ill to work. She went to her husband and said:
“There is no more food for you, nor for us. We shall all have to die. O! if we had only not tried to get the gold.”
The lion was listening to all that was said, and he was so pleased at their misfortune that he began laughing at them. And as he laughed, he opened his mouth, and the greedy man quickly drew out his hand, before the lion had a chance to close his jaws again!