I,Malaysian!

Many years ago, there was a fisherman in Malaysia whose name Mahmud. He was a kind man, but he dreamed of nothing else except of how to get rich. He was not really interested in catching fish. He had heard tales from his father and grandfather of treasure ships being sunk off the coast of Malaysia. So he visited all these places in the hope of being able to fish up some treasure from the bottom of the sea.

One day, while he was dozing in his fishing boat in the hot sun, he felt something tugging at his fishing line. He pulled it in to see what he had caught. It was such hard work that he wondered what it was. As his fishing line came out of the water, he was surprised to see that he had caught a heavy gold chain.

He leaned over the side of the boat to pull in the chain. "It must be worth thousands of ringgit," he thought. "I should be able to buy a big house with padi fields around it."

The chain seemed to be endless. The more he pulled, the more there was. "I can buy some jewellery for my wife," he thought. "There will be no need for me to work any more. I can hire men to work for me." The chain filled his boat. He did not notice that it was so heavy that his boat was beginning to sink. "I can buy a rubber estate and a coconut plantation -- a herd of buffaloes. My wife can have a chicken farm too. I can open a bank account. I... I... Ugh!"

The water closed over his head. He tried to swim up through the water, but his legs were trapped in the golden chain.

That was the last that was ever seen of him.

His wife, children and friends were very sad when he did not return home that evening. His wife said, "He was a good man, but it was a pity that he was so greedy. The old saying is quite right -- 'Greed leads a man to his destruction just as a camel is led by its driver.'"

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