Grasp All, Lose All

Grasp All, Lose All tells the story of a poor oil-seller in India named Dena, who is in debt to a banker for three hundred rupees. This banker persists in harassing Dena and his wife so much that Dena decides to run away, not knowing where he will go. He climbs a tree to sleep and wakes up the next morning not in the forest in which he went to sleep but on a deserted beach. There he finds numberless rubies easily had just for the taking. Gathering as many as he can, he climbs back up the tree and soon finds himself in the forest where he once was. When he shows the rubies to his wife and then the money lender, what happens next when greed overtakes reason in the hearts of the characters in this folktale is worth the hearing.

Public Domain (P)2014 Robert Gonzalez