kill the goose that lays the golden eggs



kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

Destroy a source of riches through stupidity or greed, as in If he never gives his loyal customers a break on some items in his store, he'll kill the goose that lays the golden eggs . This expression, already a proverb in the late 1400s, alludes to Aesop's fable about a farmer whose goose lays one golden egg a day, and who kills the goose in the mistaken belief that he'll get all the eggs at once.
See also: egg, golden, goose, kill, lay

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Eliciaə-LISH-ə, ə-LISH-yəEnglish (Rare)
BecciBEK-eeEnglish (Modern)
ArtŪRs-Latvian
Gherardoge-RAHR-doItalian (Archaic)
MardukMAHR-dook (English)Near Eastern Mythology
HamHAM (English)Biblical