Have you guys ever heard of the proverb 'orang tamak selalu rugi' ? As malays, this proverb has been drilled into our head since we were little kids. The literal translation is 'the greedy always lose'. When I was a kid, my mom had always told me to be thankful for what I have. I have heeded her advice ever since. But one day, my friend brought up the proverb for our Malay language class. It had me thinking about the proverb's meaning once again. Yesterday, when I was pondering about it's meaning, I remembered a story. The story was about a dog and a bone and it goes like this.
There was a dog who had a piece of bone in his mouth. It went to a bridge to cross a river. Suddenly, it saw its reflection in the river. The reflection too, had a bone and the dog wanted the bone in its mouth. It thought that its reflection was another dog, so the dog barked to scare the other dog away. Guess what happened? The bone is the dog's mouth fell into a river. So, the dog went away with a dejected feeling.
The supposed moral of the story is do not be greedy. But, the more I think about it, I thought that the moral of the story should've been different. Now that you've heard the story, take a moment and think about it. If the dog had known that the dog in the river was it's reflection, it wouldn't have barked and lost it's bone, right? I mean, if the dog had not been stupid, it would still have it's bone. So, what I'm saying is that, the greedy don't always lose. The stupid does. Get it? STUPID.
Its true right? If you are smart, everything you touch will turn into gold. For instance, if a person have an insatiable greed for knowledge, what would he lose from that? Instead, he would have a thousand benefit from his endeavor. But, knowledge is not the only thing that will make you succeed in life. You still need perseverance. If you combine both elements of good virtue in you life, you will excel in life. That, I can guarantee you. Just like the crow and the jar of water. The crow was smart enough to put the stones in the water and it also had the perseverance to complete the task at hand. Finally, it succeeded in drinking the little bit of water in the jar.
So dear readers, in everything you do, please, have common sense and think before you act. If you have a problem, don't do something that will make things worse than they already are. My advice is be the crow, don't be the dog.
Till next time. :D
