Lord Ganesha and Kubera

Kubera, the god of wealth, was very proud of his boundless fortune. One day, he organized a gorgeous dinner. Kubera invited Lord Shiva and Parvati to dinner wishing to show off his riches. But, the couple denied Kubera's request and said that he could feed Ganesha instead. Kubera laughed and said 'I can feed thousands of children like this."

Ganesha went to his palace and sat down to eat. He started eating all the food placed in front of him. As was the custom, more and more food was served to him as he did not say that he had enough. Soon there was no more food in the palace and so Kubera ordered his troops to get more food from the surrounding villages. But Ganesha continued eating and there was no more food to be found. Still very hungry, and not satisfied with all the available food, Ganesh started to devour plates and dishes, the furniture and all the content of Alakapuri, the main city of Kubera.

When he achieved to gulp down the whole, the child Ganesh threatened to swallow Kubera himself. Frightened, the god of wealth rushed forward to Shiva's feet to implore his help, since the Ganesh voracious appetite seemed to be unlimited.

Kubera became very frightened. Ganesha told him, " You promised my parents you will feed me. Now, I have to eat you up as I am still very hungry ". Kubera ran away and pleaded with Shiva to save him from Ganesha. Shiva asked Kubera to give up his pride and serve Ganesha a handful of rice. Kubera went back to his palace. By this time, Ganesha's stomach had become very huge but the child was still hungry. When Kubera served a cup of rice with humility, Ganesha's hunger was satisfied.

Greed!!...Where does it ends

There is a story about a wealthy farmer who was once offered all the land he could walk
on in a day, provided he came back by sundown to the point where he started. To get a
new start, early the next morning the farmer started covering ground quickly because he
wanted to get as much land as he could. Even though he was tired, he kept going all
afternoon because he didn't want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to gain more
wealth.

Late in the afternoon he realized the condition he had to fulfil to get the land was to get
back to the starting point by sundown. His greed had gotten him far enough. He started
his return journey, keeping an eye on how close he was to sundown. The closer it got to
sundown, the faster he ran. He was exhausted, out of breath and pushed himself beyond
the point of endurance. He collapsed upon reaching the starting point and died. He did
make it before sundown. He was buried and all the land he needed was a small plot.
There is a lot of truth in this story and a lesson to be learned. Whether the farmer was
wealthy or not, any greedy person would have ended the same way.