There lived in northern India a merchant whose wife died, and he left his lonely house to go and live in the town. I must have a holiday, he said to himself, and he began to climb up into the hills to enjoy the view and sounds of the forest. In the hot afternoon he felt sleepy and looked for a quiet place to sleep, soon he saw a hole in a cliff which was actually a cave and he lay down in the dark interior and slept.
Waking up, he felt that there was something in the cave and found a large earthen jar, then another, making a total of seven jars. Out of curiosity, though a bit risky, he lifted the lid of the first jar, and to his surprise, it was full of gold coins, as were the second, third, fourth, and fifth. Under the lid of the sixth jar, he found a piece of paper quite aged; on it was written, “Finder beware; the seven jars of gold are yours, but there is a curse; no one who takes them with him can leave the curse behind.”
Next to curiosity, greed is more powerful, the merchant overjoyed with his luck carried the jars of gold to his house, being bulky and hard to lift it was exhausting and next to impossible. On the last trip with the seventh jar, the load was lighter. Let me count the coins, he thought, and see how great my fortune is. The seventh jar was only half full. He exclaimed, I was promised seven jars. He had thrown away the note and forgotten the curse and was obsessed by a spirit of grasping and greed and with the thought that I must fill the seventh jar with gold.
Yet the more he put into the jar, the more it remained half full. Though he lived for many years, he never did enjoy spending the gold he found because it was never enough for him. So beware of curses; sometimes even we tend to get stuck in them.