Boats

In a distant land far away from our world there were tree man cursed to sail their boats in an endless ocean.The ocean itself was full of items some worthless,some very expensive,some ugly,some fine.The curse said that only the remains of their boats would reach the shore,if they did not overcome their greed and stupidity.The boats were ordinary,narrow,pair-oar and boring.For them it was rowing all day and all night.
At some time the three man started noticing the items floating around them.Exhausted of the same routine every day the man started looking more closely at the objects around them.
Although the fear that the boat could overturn the first man leaned out of the boat and grabbed a shiny peace of gold worth more than he have ever owned.The next day he took the risk of falling out or flipping the boat he leaned again and got a fine big and expensive gem.And so day after day he collected only the expensive things that floated around him,and one day under the pressure of his riches his boat cracked in two peaces,and he and the riches he gathered all his life went down to the oceans bottom.Only peaces of his boat reached the shore and after a short period of time people forgot about him.
The second man also got over his fears and started collecting all kinds of objects.He wasn't as greedy as the first man and did not collect gems or gold.He wanted the outermost items that he could not see clearly.Sometimes they worth the risk,sometimes not.Until one day he saw something that attracted his attention.He struggled with the waves trying to overturn his boat,he struggled with his own weight in an effort to get this unknown object.For days he strove against the wind,waves and himself till the boat turned over and he found himself in the water next to the object he so much desired.The object turned out to be a simple wooden branch,but in the distance it looked so attractive.His whole boat reached the shore,but nor the things he gathered,nor he did.
The third man turned out to be wise and used his paddle to get the objects he wanted.He did not collect riches or things that he could not see,he got the objects that he could use in his endless journey.He found a candle,some matches,a book,a pencil,some wire and a pin.At night he would light up the candle and read his book,by day he was fishing with a rod that he made himself from the pencil,wire and pin.When he wasn't fishing he wrote on his boat what he saw in the ocean.One day a storm appeared from nowhere.He noticed that the boat could not stand the power of the storm with his weight on it.He got up and jumped over the boat.The second he did that the storm was over and he could not believe what he saw.He was rewarded for his brave act.The water that he fell in was shallow,he was meters away from the shore.He was safe.After a few years he died.But people didn't forget him like the two before him,he left his knowledge about the endless ocean,written on his boat,for those who would be born after him.Even now people talk about him and admire his brave act of sacrificing his life for the thing he thought useful and the knowledge he considered the most expensive of the things on the boat.
It is up to us to decide whether our boats reach the shore,or we prefer sinking with what we consider ours.Greed and stupidity - the modern day plague...