Once upon a time, far far away on the other side of the mountain, there lived a man named Chow-Ming. Chow-Ming was a very rich and powerful man. He lived in a beautiful palace with his servants and his guards. The palace was a tall building with a brown roof. The eaves were turned up in the style of an old-fashioned Chinese building. The inside was huge with a red rug, which had a Chinese dragon in the middle and gold trim on the outside. Chow-Ming sat on a gold throne. His servants almost always gave him his favorite meal of vegetables and rice. If the servants didn't give him his favorite meal or if they tried to leave, Chow-Ming would cut off their heads! Now sit back and listen to the story of greedy Chow-Ming.
Now Chow-Ming was a very greedy man and lived alone except for his servants. These servants were very annoyed because they had to work so hard for so little money. There were many kings who hated him and wanted him dead. But whenever they got their armies ready to attack they were always defeated. Chow-Ming's army was so powerful that he was never defeated. Many warlords tried to defeat him but they never could. He got wealthier and wealthier because he stole all the gold, precious stones, and jade from the kingdoms he defeated.
Then at the next sunrise a flood came and washed out almost everything. The flood came in like a big tidal wave. It destroyed everything in its path. It ripped things away and took parts of buildings with it. But Chow-Ming's palace was still there and everybody was alive. The only reason the flood didn't get into the palace was because of the high walls around it.
Then an army came to try to knock down those walls and they succeeded. The following day another flood came and killed Chow-Ming. Only just before he had died did he realize how greedy he was.
The morale of the story is that: though you amass ten thousand pounds of silver at death, you can not even take a copper penny.