Although the story begins with an attempted suicide by a childless man, it is mainly thinly disguised philosophical advice based on three proverbs: Don't make important decisions in the morning, work in the afternoon, but don't overdo, and in the evening, don't be a fool, and do things you will regret later on.
Once there lived a man who more than anything in the world wanted a son. Having neither wife nor money he decided to end his life. He bought a rope, attached it to a tree, and then tied himself to the rope. But the tree fell down. Then he put up a sign that read, "Tighten the rope, and the rope breaks."
Later, he found a pot full of gold. As he walked along the road he met a man leading a donkey who said, "If you carry my jar, I'll give you a share." "Gladly," said the man, "I'll help you carry it." And he put the pot of gold on the donkey's back As they walked on, the man changed his mind. "Listen," he said, "if you want my help, you'll have to give me half." But the man who owned the pot of gold said, "No, you agreed to take only a share, and that's all I will give you." And then angry because the man had broken his word and was trying to cheat him, he thought to himself, "I wish he'd fall down and die." Sure enough, the man who owned the donkey fell down and died. The man put up a sign that read, "He who wants everything, loses everything."
Looking for a place to hide his money, he came to a cemetery,
and buried the money underneath a grave. At dawn, he saw a woman
digging at the grave, and asked her, "What are you doing here
so early in the morning?" "I came to find a treasure hidden
in my sonŐs grave." The man asked her what work her son did.
"He was," she said, "the king's knave." The man put up a sign
that read, "Knave in this world, knave in the next."
One day the king's son sallied forth to hunt. First, he saw the sign that read, "Tighten the rope, and the rope breaks." Further on, he saw the next sign that read, "He who wants everything, loses everything." Finally, he saw the one that read, "Knave in this world, knave in the next."
Then the king issued a proclamation that read, "He who guesses what I ate today will have half my kingdom." The man appeared before the king, and said to him, "You breakfasted on, "Tighten the rope, and the rope breaks." You lunched on, "He who wants everything, loses everything." You dined on "Knave in this world, knave in the next."
And they all were happy ever after, and so were we.
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