Once, in the heart of a dense forest, there was a village only seen by the worthy. Inside this village was untold riches and paradise. Many believed it to be a legend, but it was real. Only a small number of believers survive today. The major problem is that no one knows what you must do to become worthy to get into the village. One man heard the story when he was a little kid, and became obsessed with finding the village. For a good part of his young adult life, he researched all stories and tales about the village. One story in particular caught his eye.

The story stated that to become worthy and enter the village, you must find one of the fifty gold tree necklace pieces. The story also said that the gold tree pieces were hidden inside particularly tall willow trees. After reading this story, he began his search. For many years he searched and searched every willow tree he could find. After six years of searching, he found a willow tree bigger than any he ever saw before. He looked up and saw a small hole in the tree.

“It must be here,” he exclaimed, proudly. He began to climb the tree, and when he reached the hole, he saw over twenty gold tree pieces. “Which should I take?” he asked with triumph. “I better take them all to be safe.” After picking up all of the peices, he saw a small engraving on the tree which said
“Beware of Greed”. Discounting it, he climbed down the tree, and walked back to his village. Then He consulted his book, and went to the spot where it said to go.


When he got there, he saw an old man who said, “Nice job. You can now enter the unseen village if you answer some questions.”

“Okay,” said the man, feeling confident.

“First, what would you most like to find in the village?” asked the old man.

The man took a second and said, “Untold fortune and everything I want.”

The old man then asked “How many other people would you like to enter the village?”

“I don’t know, anyone who is good, I guess,” said the man.

“Can you think of anyone?” asked the old man.

“My son,” said the man.

“He can’t,” answered the old man, quickly.

“Why not? He’s good!”

“He can’t because you removed all the pieces, and as for you, you will take my place and never see the inside of the village!”

“What? Why not? I found the pieces and I took all of them. I should more than qualify.”

“You made the same mistake I made. You thought taking them all was better, but you gave in to greed, and that was the true test.”