有一对夫妇非常幸运，他们有一隻每天下一枚金蛋的母鹅。儘管非常幸运，可他们很快就觉得财富增加得还不够快，不仅如此，他们还以为这隻鹅的内脏肯定也是金的。于是，他们决定杀掉它，这样就能立刻得到全部珍宝了。然而，他们把鹅开膛破肚之后，却發现和其它鹅没什麽两样。如此，他们既没有像当初希望得那样一夜暴富，也不能再享有财富与日俱增的好运气了。

【下金蛋的鹅的寓意】人们应该满足于现有的东西，切不可贪得无厌，“杀鸡取卵”是愚蠢的行为。

A Man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a Goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough, and imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the whole store of precious metal at once. But when they cut it open they found it was just like any other goose. Thus, they neither got rich all at once, as they had hoped, nor enjoyed any longer the daily addition to their wealth.