Why are we working so hard?

Want to know why you are working so hard?

On the very first day of the world, God created the cow.

He said to the cow:
'Ah Ngau (cow), today I have created you.
Your job is to go to the field with the farmer all day long.
You will provide the energy to pull things.
You will also provide milk for people to drink.
You are to work all day under the sun.
In return, you will only eat grass.
For that, you will have a life span of 50 years.'

Ah Ngau objected.
'What?? I have to work all day in the sun and I only get to eat grass??
On top of that, I have to give my milk away!
This is tough and you want me to live 50 years??
I'll take 20 and you can have the remaining 30 years back!!'

God agreed.

On the next day, God created the dog.

He said to the dog:
'Ah Kow (dog), I have created you for a purpose.
You are to sit all day by the door of your master's house.
Should anyone come in, you are to bark at them.
In return, you will eat your master's leftovers.
I'll give you a life span of 20 years.'

Ah Kow objected.
'What??
I have to sit by the door all day and will need to bark at people, and what do I get??
LEFTOVERS!!!
This isn't right, I'll take 10 and you can have the remaining 10 years back!'

God agreed again.

On the third day, God created the monkey.

He said to the monkey:
'Mah Lao (monkey), your job is to entertain people.
You will make them laugh, act stupid and make faces.
You will also do somersaults and swing on trees to amaze them.
In return, you will get to eat bananas and peanuts.
For that, I'll give you 20 years to live.'

Naturally the monkey objected.
'This is ridiculuos, I've got to make faces and make people laugh, let's not even come to the part about the trees and somersaults.
Tell you what, I'll give 10 years of my life to thank you for my existence and I'll take 10.
What do you think?'

God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created humans.

God said to the man:
'You are my best piece of work, for that, you will only need to sleep, eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep again and do nothing else. You will get to eat all the best things and play with the best toys.
All you need to do is enjoy your life. For this kind of life, I'll Give you 20 years.'

Just like the rest, the man objected.
'What, all I need to do is relax and enjoy myself and I have only 20 years to live?
Tell you what, you've 30 years back from Ah Ngau, 10 years from Ah Kow and another 10 from Mah Lao and you probably don't know what to do with all those lives. Why not I take them all and I'll have 70 years to live?'

God being such good-natured, agreed with a smile.....

AND THAT IS WHY.....
We eat, sleep, play and enjoy for the first 20 years of our lives when we are growing up.
Work like a cow for the next 30 years to raise our family.
Sit outside the door and bark at people for the next 20 when we are retired.
And finally, we make faces and perform monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren for the final 10 years.

taken from my mailbox
29th Oct 2008