Near the Chinese city of Nanjing there lived a man called Mr Wang. All his life, he had been interested in nothing except good food, and plenty of it. He wasn't poor, but he didn't much like to spend money. He preferred to eat at other people's tables because it didn't cost him anything. That’s right: then, he would eat up whole bowlfuls of food, right down to the last grain of rice from his chopsticks. But when he had to pay for his food, he ate only as much as might fit under his fingernail, and only the most inferior cuts of meat.
And because the name Wang means “king” in Chinese, people called him the Greedy King.
One day, Mr Wang was lounging in the shade under the trees as usual when he saw a flock of ducks swimming along a nearby stream.
"Oh, I'd like some crispy roast duck," he thought to himself, and his mouth began to water. He suspected that the fat ducks belonged to a rich man named Mr Lin who lived in the village.
"It must be a sign," Mr Wang said to himself. "Fate is telling me that I should have a duck today, so it sent them here. No one will notice if I take one stealthily."
Greedy Mr Wang got up from the ground. He wasn’t lazy now! He nimbly caught one of the ducks and hid it under his coat. As soon as he got home, he roasted the duck and gobbled it up fast.
Then, satisfied with his full belly, he laughed out loud at the thought of what his neighbour would do when he found that he was missing one of his ducks. "He'll surely think some bird of prey caught…
