The Hen with the Golden Eggs

A man owns a hen that lays an egg of gold every day. Believing that the hen must contain a great treasure within her body, he kills and opens her, only to discover that she is like any ordinary hen. By destroying the source of his daily wealth in hopes of gaining everything at once, he loses all his riches. The fable warns misers that greed and haste to become rich can make them poor.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Moral Literature, Animal Tale · 167 words

First lines

How avarice loseth all, / By striving all to gain, / I need no witness call / But him whose thrifty hen, / As by the fable we are told, / Laid every day an egg of gold. / 'She hath a treasure in her body,' / Bethinks the avaricious noddy. / He kills and opens -- vexed to find / All things like hens of common kind. / Thus spoil'd the source of all his riches, / To misers he a lesson teaches. / In these last changes of the moon, / How often doth one see / Men made as poor as he / By force of getting rich too soon! [1]

[1]: Aesop.

• Open reader

Similar titles

• The Raven Wishing To Imitate The Eagle by Jean De La Fontaine
• The City Rat And The Country Rat by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Dog That Dropped The Substance For The Shadow by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Woodman And Mercury by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Hare And The Partridge by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Ass Dressed In The Lions Skin by Jean De La Fontaine

Genres

• Fable — A brief moral tale featuring a symbolic hen and an avaricious owner, ending with an explicit lesson about greed.
• Moral Literature — Its central purpose is didactic: it warns that attempting to gain everything at once can destroy an existing source of prosperity.
• Animal Tale — The plot centers on a hen that lays golden eggs, using an animal as the crucial vehicle for the narrative's meaning.
• Didactic Poetry — La Fontaine presents the cautionary narrative in verse and directly teaches readers a practical ethical lesson.

Tags

fable · verse fable · didactic poetry · moral lesson · avarice · greed · misers · wealth · poverty · golden egg · gold-laying hen · animal motif

What this Textopian page supports

The Hen with the Golden Eggs is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1668 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Moral Literature, Animal Tale, Didactic Poetry, Allegory
• Length: 167 words
• Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Hen with the Golden Eggs by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
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More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine