Three Traps of Life

A farmer goes to the city to sell donkeys and goats. The goat has a small bell around its neck. Three thieves see it and one says, “I will steal the goat and he won’t even notice.” Second thief says, “I will steal the goat then.” And the third says, “That’s nothing, I will steal all the clothes on the farmer.”

First thief goes over; he removes the bell around the goat’s neck and puts it onto the donkey’s tail. And then he takes the goat away. When the farmer realizes that his goat disappeared, he starts to wander around looking for it.

The second thief walks up to the farmer and asks him what he’s looking for. The farmer tells him that he’s looking for his goat. The thief says, “Oh, I saw a man with a goat. He went into the forest. You should still be able to catch him if you run.” The farmer asks the thief to look after his donkey so he can run after the other thief. Now thief number two has the donkey.

The farmer looks back after awhile and notices that even his donkey is gone. He starts to cry as he walks. Then he sees a man sitting by a pond, also crying. The farmer asks him what had happened.

The man says, “Someone asked me to bring a bag of gold into the city. I was very tired so I wanted to rest. I lay down by the pond and fell asleep. When I woke up, I realized the bag of gold dropped into the pond.” The farmer asks, “Why don’t you get it back?” The man says, “I’m afraid of water and I cannot swim. If you can get it for me, I will give you twenty gold coins.”

The farmer is overjoyed, thinking: "Because someone stole my goat and donkey, God must be granting me a miracle." So he takes off all his clothes and dives into the water. Unfortunately, he cannot find any bag of gold. When he climbs up from the water, he finds that his clothes are missing. After all, the third thief has stolen his clothes.

And this is the 3 traps of life: Careless, gullible, and greed.