O) You decide to follow quietly behind the suspicious looking men. You hear the tallest man laugh and say, "I can't believe how easy it was for us to dig through the walls into that house!” "Let's sell this golden statue, it has to be worth a fortune!” the shortest man exclaims. The men suddenly notice that they are being followed. They turn around. "Well, well, well! Look what we have here." shouts the tallest one. “Hey, it’s that brat from the house where we stole the statue!” the medium-sized man declares. The smaller man winds up and slugs you in the chin! You fall to the ground with a thud. The three men laugh, "How could you possibly stop us? You're just a child. We are the best wall-diggers in the world. No one could stop thieves like us, nobody! Not even the gods!" Maybe the thieves didn't notice, or maybe they didn't even care, but you remember distinctly that they were standing on the steps of the Parthenon, the magnificent temple to the goddess Athena. You also remember the sky opening up, and a bolt of lightning striking the three thieves where they stood. All you know is that now you are staring at three charred skeletons, and a melted puddle of gold that was once a statue. The three men were guilty of overwhelming pride, pride that offended even the gods. The Greeks called pride like this, hubris. As you walk home without the statue, you think to yourself that there are more important things than thieves and golden statues, like the family at home anxiously awaiting your return.
THE END