The Greedy Dog

In a bustling village beside the sacred Yamuna River, there lived a street dog named Bhukka. He was neither the strongest nor the cleverest dog in the village, but he had one quality that set him apart from all the others – an insatiable greed that was never satisfied, no matter how much he acquired.

Bhukka spent his days wandering through the narrow streets and crowded markets, always searching for food scraps and easy opportunities. Unlike other dogs who were content with whatever meals they could find, Bhukka was constantly dissatisfied, always convinced that somewhere else there must be something better, something more, something that would finally fill the empty feeling in his heart.

“Why should I be satisfied with these table scraps?” he would think to himself as he turned up his nose at perfectly good food. “Surely a dog as smart as me deserves better than what these other mutts are happy to eat.”

His fellow street dogs often tried to share their findings with him, but Bhukka rarely showed gratitude. Instead, he would eye their portions enviously and scheme about how he might get more for himself.

One particularly hot afternoon, when the summer sun was beating down mercilessly on the dusty streets, Bhukka had been searching for food all day without success. The market vendors had been unusually careful about securing their wares, and even the garbage piles seemed picked clean by other hungry animals.

As evening approached and his stomach growled with increasing intensity, Bhukka began to venture into parts of the village he usually avoided – the wealthier neighborhoods where the houses were larger and the people were more likely to chase away stray dogs.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he muttered to himself as he skulked through the shadows of elegant courtyard walls. “Those rich people must throw away better food than the poor folks ever see.”

Just as he was beginning to give up hope, his keen nose picked up an incredible scent wafting from behind a high wall. It was the aroma of roasted meat, rich and succulent, unlike anything he had smelled in months.

Following his nose, Bhukka discovered a small gap in the wall where a brick had fallen out. Squeezing through the opening, he found himself in the courtyard of a wealthy merchant’s house, where a grand feast had obviously taken place earlier that day.

The courtyard was littered with the remains of the celebration – empty clay pots, scattered flower petals, and most importantly to Bhukka, several large bones that had been discarded after the guests had finished their meal.

“By all the gods!” Bhukka exclaimed under his breath. “Look at all this food! This is exactly what I deserve!”

Among all the scattered bones, one in particular caught his attention. It was a magnificent bone from what must have been a very large piece of meat – thick, meaty, and still covered with delicious bits of roasted flesh. It was easily the finest bone Bhukka had ever seen, and certainly more food than he could eat in a single day.

“At last!” he thought triumphantly. “Finally, I have found something worthy of my efforts. This bone is fit for a king among dogs!”

Bhukka grabbed the precious bone in his jaws and quickly made his escape through the gap in the wall. He was so excited about his find that he practically danced as he trotted through the streets, imagining how envious the other dogs would be when they saw his magnificent prize.

“I’ll find a quiet, private place to enjoy this feast,” he decided. “Somewhere far from the other dogs where no one can bother me or try to steal even the smallest piece.”

He remembered a peaceful spot he had discovered weeks earlier – a quiet grove beside the river where he could eat in solitude and savor every delicious bite without having to share or worry about competition.

As Bhukka made his way toward the river, the bone gripped firmly in his teeth, he couldn’t help but feel enormously proud of himself. Here was proof that his refusal to settle for ordinary scraps had been the right approach. While other dogs were content with whatever they could find, he had held out for something truly special.

“This just shows that patience and ambition pay off,” he congratulated himself. “I knew that if I kept looking, I would eventually find something much better than what those other dogs settle for.”

The path to his secret dining spot led across a narrow wooden bridge that spanned the river at its shallowest point. Bhukka had crossed this bridge many times before, but today, with his precious cargo, he decided to pause in the middle to gloat over his good fortune.

Looking down at the clear water flowing beneath the bridge, Bhukka caught sight of his own reflection in the smooth surface. But in his excitement and pride, what he saw made his eyes widen with amazement and his heart race with new greed.

There, looking back at him from the water, was another dog carrying what appeared to be an even larger, more magnificent bone than the one he held in his own mouth!

“Incredible!” Bhukka thought, his mind immediately racing with greedy calculations. “There’s another dog down there with an even better bone than mine! If I could get that bone away from him, I would have two bones – and his looks even bigger and meatier than the one I found!”

The possibility of doubling his treasure was too tempting to resist. Bhukka had spent his entire life believing that more was always better, and here was an opportunity to prove that philosophy right.

He studied the other dog carefully, trying to figure out how to get the superior bone away from him. The dog in the water seemed to be the same size as himself, so it might be an even fight. But Bhukka was confident in his ability to intimidate and overpower a rival when something valuable was at stake.

“I’ll bark at him and scare him into dropping his bone,” Bhukka decided. “Then I can dive down and grab it before he recovers. Two bones are definitely better than one, especially when one of them is so much better than what I already have.”

Without stopping to consider the logic of his plan, or to look more carefully at what he was actually seeing, Bhukka opened his mouth wide and let out his most fierce and threatening bark:

“WOOF! Drop that bone, you thief! That bone belongs to me!”

But the moment he opened his mouth to bark, his own precious bone fell from his jaws and dropped into the river below. He watched in horror as it sank quickly beneath the surface, disappearing into the muddy bottom where he could never retrieve it.

At the same instant, the other dog in the water – his rival with the magnificent bone – vanished completely, along with the coveted prize that Bhukka had been so desperate to steal.

“No!” Bhukka cried out in anguish, finally understanding what had happened. “That wasn’t another dog at all! It was my own reflection! I was seeing my own bone reflected in the water!”

He leaned over the edge of the bridge, desperately searching the murky water for any sign of his lost treasure, but it was gone forever. The magnificent bone that had represented the greatest find of his life had been lost in a single moment of greedy foolishness.

“What have I done?” Bhukka wailed, his voice echoing across the empty riverbank. “I had the most wonderful bone any dog could ask for, and I threw it away because I wanted even more!”

He spent the rest of the evening by the river, staring down at the water and hoping against hope that somehow his bone might resurface. But as the sun set and darkness fell, he was forced to accept the reality of his loss.

Hungry, heartbroken, and humbled, Bhukka slowly made his way back to the village streets where he had started the day. But now, instead of the magnificent feast he had been anticipating, he faced the prospect of another night with an empty stomach.

As he wandered through the familiar alleys, Bhukka encountered some of the other street dogs who had found their usual modest dinners of scraps and leftovers.

“Bhukka!” called out one of them cheerfully. “We found some good rice and vegetables behind the temple today. There’s enough to share if you’re hungry.”

For the first time in his life, Bhukka looked at the simple meal with genuine gratitude instead of disdain. He realized that these dogs, who he had always considered less ambitious than himself, were actually wiser in their contentment with what they had.

“Thank you, my friends,” he said humbly, accepting their generous offer. “I think I’ve learned something important today about the difference between enough and too much.”

From that day forward, Bhukka became a changed dog. He learned to appreciate whatever food he could find, to be grateful for the kindness of others, and to understand that contentment comes not from acquiring more and more, but from being satisfied with what we have.

Whenever young dogs in the village would complain about their meals or express envy of what others possessed, the older dogs would tell them the story of Bhukka and the bone in the river.

“Greed is like a bottomless pit,” they would say. “No matter how much you pour into it, it’s never filled. The dog who is grateful for one good bone will enjoy his meal, but the dog who always wants two bones will often end up with none.”

Bhukka himself became one of the most enthusiastic tellers of this tale, using his own experience to teach others about the importance of contentment and the dangers of letting greed cloud our judgment.

“I had everything I needed,” he would always conclude, “but I lost it all because I thought I needed everything I wanted. True wealth isn’t having the most – it’s wanting what you have.”

And though he never again found a bone quite as magnificent as the one he lost in the river, Bhukka discovered something much more valuable – the peace and happiness that comes from a grateful heart and a contented spirit.