This is a nice story from the Jaatak Kathaayen (Tales). Once upon a time, there was a Swan / goose that had striking golden feathers. This swan lived in a pond. There was a house near this pond, where a poor woman lived with her two daughters. Those people were really poor and were leading a tough life.

The Swan found that the poor mother was passing a hard time with her daughters. So the Swan thought, “If I give them one after another my golden feathers, the mother can sell them and she and her daughters can live in comfort with the money raised from it”. So thinking this, the Swan flew away to the poor woman’s house. On seeing the Swan inside the house, the woman said,” Why have you come here? We have nothing to offer you”.

The Swan replied, “I have not come to take anything, but I have come here to give you something. I know your condition. I will give my golden feathers one by one and you can sell them. With the money raised through it, you people can easily live in comfort”. After saying this, the Swan shed one of his feathers and flew away. This became a regular feature and from time to time, the Swan came there, every time he fell his one golden feather and flew away. Like this, the mother and her daughters were happily leading their life by selling the feathers of the Golden Swan. Each golden feather got them enough money to keep them in comfort.

But after some time the mother became greedy to get all the feathers as soon as possible. So one day, she said to her daughters, “Now, we will not trust this Swan, possibly he may fly away and never comes back. If this would happen, we will be poor again. We will take all of his feathers, when he will come the next time”.

The innocent daughters replied, “Mother, this will hurt the swan. We do not want to cause him any pain, he has been so nice to us”. But the mother was determined to catch hold the Swan the very next time he comes. Next time, when the Swan came, the mother caught him and pulled out all of his feathers. Now, the golden feathers of the swan changed into some strange feathers. The mother was shocked to see such feathers.

The Golden Swan said, “Poor Mother, I wanted to help you, but you wanted to kill me instead. As per my wish, I used to give you the golden feather. Now, I think there is no need to help you. Now, my feathers are nothing more than chicken feathers for you. I am going from this place and I will never come back”. The mother felt sorry and apologized for the mistake committed by her, but she could not bring his golden feathers back.

The Golden Swan said, “Never be so greedy” and flew away