Cerita rakyat from Riau

The Greedy Man

Once upon a time in Riau, lived a pair of husband and wife. They were very poor. The wife was very diligent, while the husband was very lazy. He just slept and slept everyday. He did not want to help his wife to earn a living. The wife was helpless, she often prayed to God to help her husband.

One night the husband had a dream. In his dream, an old man came to him. He told the husband to take his sampan and went to river. "Go to the middle of the river and wait until a rope appears from the river. Take the rope slowly, and then you will find a golden chain. You can cut and take it, but don't take the chain too long," said the old man. The husband then woke up from his dream.

In the next day, the husband took his sampan and went to river. He wanted to do the old man's advice as said in his dream last night. "Where are you going?" asked the wife. She was so surprised to see her husband was busy preparing the sampan. "I want to go fishing, Honey. See you later!" the husband didn’t want to tell his wife about his dream. He knew his wife would think he was crazy by following up a dream.

After the husband arrived in the river, he rowed his sampan until he reached the middle of the river. He then looked around the water surface very carefully. Suddenly a rope appeared from the river. "The old man was right!" said the husband to himself. He then slowly pulled the rope and at the end of the rope he saw a golden chain! The chain was sparkling and glowing. It was made from pure gold. "Wow! It’s really made of gold. I’m rich. I’m rich," the husband said happily. He kept pulling the chain. He forgot the old man's advice to take only short chain because it was enough for him. The poor man became greedy. He wanted to take the golden chain as long as possible.

While he was busy pulling out the golden chain, a bird came to him. It talked, "Remember the old man's advice. Take only a short golden chain." But the poor man ignored the bird and kept on pulling out the chain. Slow but sure, his sampan was full of the golden chain. It was so full that finally the sampan could not hold the weight any more. The sampan started to drown. The golden chain was sinking and went to the bottom of the river creating a big wave in the river. The wave almost swallowed the poor man. He was so panicked. He swam as fast as possible to the river side.