The snare of greed

Erich Fromm was spot on when he said, “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”

A tale from the parables of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa endorses this observation with a simple yet powerful narrative.

Once, a barber was returning home through the woods. He heard a strange voice address him and offer him seven jars of gold. The barber looked around and could not see anyone. Nevertheless, he responded to the invisible voice saying that he wanted the gift. The voice told him to go home. When the barber reached home, he found seven jars. Joyfully, he opened each one of them and found them filled with gold coins to the brim. However, the last jar was half empty. 

The barber felt cheated. Since he could not find the donor, he decided to fill the seventh jar by himself. He melted the few ornaments he had and converted them into coins and put them into the jar. But that did not help.

He cut down his expenses to the bare minimum. He started working harder and requested a raise from the king he worked for. His application was complied with. However, the jar never seemed to fill.

Over a period of time, the desperate barber fell into the endless tunnel of greed. The king noticed his condition and enquired about him. When the barber remained tight-lipped, the king asked him whether the former was in possession of the jars of desire.

The barber was taken aback. Then the king told him that he
had also been offered a similar gift in the past by a Yaksha, but he had declined it. 

That day, on his way home, through the woods, he addressed the Yaksha at the spot where he had heard the voice and begged that the cursed jars be taken away.

When the barber reached home, he found that the jars had vanished along with the hard-earned money that he had saved by living a hand-to-mouth existence.

The barber lost everything because he craved more when he had more than enough. However, the wise king was aware of the snare of greed. Therefore, he did not want to accept the gold that he had not worked for or been entitled to!