“Wishful Desires Are Like Unfillable Valleys”『欲望是個填不滿的山谷』

By: Tun-Hui Yu Translated By: Evnlyn Lee（林一華）

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Once there was a beggar wandering along the street thinking to himself how wonderful it would be if he had twenty thousand dollars. One day, unintentionally he found a lost puppy. Looking around him he did not see anyone, he took the puppy home in his cave where he leashed the little puppy.

The master of the puppy was the millionaire of the county. After he lost the puppy, he was stricken with anxiety because the dog was an imported pure bred, Then he put an advertisement in the local television station. “A reward of twenty thousand dollars for returning the lost puppy.”

Next day while the beggar was begging on the streets, he saw the advertisement; he hurriedly took the puppy to be returned for the twenty thousand dollars reward money. But as he walked along, he passed by the ad where the reward was raised to thirty thousand dollars. The beggar could not believe his eyes, after a brief though, his walking came to a screeching halt! He took the puppy back to the cave and leashed him again.

On the third day the reward was raised again and on the fourth day it soared further till the seventh day the reward was soaring skyrocket high. Then the beggar decided to run back to the cave to return the dog for the reward money. But to his astonishment, he never thought the cute puppy would die of starvation. The beggar remained a beggar.

Actually in life often times we missed many beautiful things, not because we could not obtain them, but because of our high expectations. Sometimes we almost reach our goal but then all of a sudden we turn to a higher goal. Like this beggar, in the beginning he dreamed of the twenty thousand dollars. When he almost attained it, but he wished to get more. Human beings sometimes are full of wishes; it is like a valley, a never fillable valley. A philosopher once said: “Human wishful desires are like volcanoes, if out of control they hurt oneself as well as they hurt others.”