In a land far away but not so long ago there lived a King.But the King said, "Go and find the thieves and bring them back here." The King's servants went looking for the thieves. It did not take them long to find the place where the thieves had taken the glass cabinet. And there, next to the pile of crushed glass, lay the three dead thieves on their bags of gold. The King's servants cried seeing what had happened to the glass cabinet. They collected every little piece of glass into a bag and took the pieces to the King. When the King saw the pieces, he took them to the Royal glass blower and gave him instructions on what to do. The glass blower melted the thousand pieces of glass and made out of them a shining crystal globe with all the continents of the world on it. And the King said, "Let this be a reminder for all of us."There they set the glass cabinet on a clearing and danced around it. "We are going to be rich!" shouted the chief of the thieves. yelled the second thief. hollered the third thief. And the chief of the thieves opened the glass cabinet and said, "I am going to take out a bag of gold."In his absence, thieves broke into the cas- tle and stole the glass cabinet.His tearful servants told him what had happened in his absence."We will be the richest men in the whole kingdom!"So he got up, crept quietly to the glass cabinet and took out a bag of gold.The cabinet crashed into a thousand pieces and right at the same moment, the three thieves fell dead on top of their piles of gold."Your Majesty, thieves came in the darkness of the night and stole the glass cabinet. We have failed you and deserve severe punishment."Needless to say, this special cabinet made the King a very powerful man.They car- ried it far away into the woods.The other two thieves did the same.But the chief of the thieves could not sleep."I will take out one more bag and I will be richer than the other two"."If I go and get myself another bag of gold, I will be richer than the others."And so he got up and went quietly to the glass cabinet and took out a bag of gold."I want to be richer than the chief. I will go and get some more gold."Soon all three were rushing back and forth between the glass cabinet and their bags of gold.Each one wanted to be richer than the others.They did not put anything back in.
By morning, the three thieves were tired and hungry, but they could not stop.They wanted more gold and they wanted to be richer and more powerful than anybody else in the whole world.They were pale and so weak that they could barely carry a bag of gold.He let out a loud scream and smashed the glass cabinet with a big hammer.In his castle the King had a magical glass cabinet.You could open the glass cabinet and take out of it anything you wanted.For example, if you wanted a new pair of shoes, all you had to do was to open the glass cabinet and take out a pair.There was only one thing you had to remember."There will be no one as powerful as we!"And so did the third man.Then they laughed happily.