A long time ago, in a small town, three young men were sitting in a tavern drinking. When they saw a funeral procession passing by, they asked the tavern boy to inquire about who had died.
The little fellow returned and said, “It was an old friend of yours named ‘Quickly’. He was murdered by a thief named ‘Death’.”
The oldest of the three turned to his two friends and said, “Who is this fellow named ‘Death’ anyway? Why are people so afraid of him? I’m not scared at all. Come on, let’s go find ‘Death’ together and kill him!”
The three men agreed to take this action and shook hands with each other. They intended to go to “Death” and end his crimes. So, they asked the tavern owner where they could find the guy named “Death”.
The tavern owner said, “Go 20 miles down this road and there is a village. Recently, there is an epidemic there, men, women and children are dead. I’m sure you’ll find the guy named ‘Death’ in that unlucky place.”
The three men stood up and set off toward that village. They were in high spirits and high spirits.
They had just walked a few miles when they came upon an ugly-looking older woman. They laughed at the older woman’s wrinkled face and dirty hair and made fun of her tattered clothes. Despite the older woman’s frightened look, they blocked her path and would not let her go.
“Please, make way for me,” cried the old woman, “I tell you, ‘death’ is following me, and I must escape to live. I don’t want to die, so get out of the way quickly.”
“We won’t get out of the way,” said the leader, “Tell us where we can find the fellow called ‘Death’? He killed our friend, and when we find him, we’re going to kill him!”
“Gentlemen,” said the old woman, “if you really want to find ‘Death,’ all you have to do is run to the top of that hill and look under that old pine tree.”
Hearing these words, the three men let the older woman go.
They ran to the bottom of the old pine tree on the hill, but instead of finding “death,” they found a chest full of gold and silver jewels. They sat down, counted the treasures they had just gotten and soon forgot about the search for “death”.
Finally, the leader said: “We must watch these treasures, the town will say we stole the treasure. We will be hanged as thieves. Let’s draw lots now, whoever draws the shortest lot will go to the town to buy food. The other two will stay behind to guard the treasures. Tomorrow we will divide the treasures and go our separate ways, so that no one can accuse us of being thieves.”
They all agreed to this plan and drew lots.
The shortest stick was drawn by the youngest of them. The other two men gave him a few gold pieces. He took the gold coins and went to the town to buy food.
The two men guarding the treasure quickly devised a plan to kill their friend as soon as he returned with the food. Then they would eat the food and then split the treaprizeo into two parts that should have been divided into three.
The youngest man walked to the town and thought, “I’m going to buy some food and some poison to put in the food. My two friends will die if they eat it, and all those treasures will be mine!” So he bought a potent poison and put the poison in the food and drink he purchased.
That night, he returned to his friend.
Just as he walked back, his two companions jumped on him and killed him. They quickly buried his body.
“Now,” said the leader, “let’s relax and eat something. We are now rich.” They spread their food and drink on the ground and ate their dinner triumphantly; they did not notice any strange taste in the food.
A few minutes later, they died of poisoning.
In this way, all three men found “death” – it was the “death” they were looking for. Like the old lady they had tortured, they found it under the old pine tree.
The natural killer is not “death”, not the plague, but money! Unfortunately, in modern society, the tragedy of the three young men is still repeated. Everyonfearsof the “God of Death” and the plague, but they do not know what is more potent than the “God of Death”, and the curse is man’s greed. Greed often makes people crand losendose their minds ad their reason, so they are eventually killed by greed.
