Once upon a time, deep within the misty mountains, there lived a creature whose name was whispered in fear. It was Taotie.
He was a strange and frightening sight to behold. He had the body of a goat, but his eyes grew not on his face, but deep down in the skin beneath his armpits. He had sharp teeth like a tiger and hands like a man, but the most terrible thing was his enormous head and his mouth so wide it seemed to stretch from ear to ear.
But far more frightening than his looks was his hunger.
Taotie was never full. No matter how much he ate, the fire inside his stomach never went out. He was the very spirit of greed and endless desire.
One day, he came down from the mountains to the villages below. The people ran away in terror, but they could not save their homes.
Taotie opened his great jaws and CRUNCH! He ate the wheat in the fields. GULP! He swallowed the fruits from the trees. CHOMP! He devoured the cattle, the sheep, and even the furniture and pots and pans.
He ate everything he saw. Gold, silver, silk, wood, stone—it did not matter to him. If it existed, he wanted to put it in his mouth.
"My hunger! My endless hunger!" he roared, his voice echoing like thunder. "The whole world is not enough for me!"
Soon, there was nothing left in the valley. The land was bare and empty. Taotie sat on the ground, his belly swollen huge, but still, his stomach growled and ached. He felt as empty as when he started.
"What shall I eat now?" he cried, looking around wildly. "There is nothing left! Everything is gone!"
He looked at his own front leg. It was strong and fleshy.
"Why not?" he thought, his eyes glowing with madness. "It is there, so it must be eaten!"
He turned his head, and with his sharp tiger teeth, he bit into his own leg.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
It tasted good to him. It satisfied him for a moment. But then the hunger came back.
He ate his leg. He ate his belly. He ate his chest and his shoulders. He ate everything he could reach, driven by a desire that could never be stopped.
He did not feel pain. He only felt the need to consume.
Finally, all that was left was his huge head. He opened his mouth wide one last time, and with one terrible snap, he bit down and swallowed his own face.
And then... there was nothing left at all.
The greedy monster had eaten himself completely away.
And so the story is told: Taotie vanished because he wanted everything, but in the end, he had nothing. He teaches us that greed is a bottomless pit, and the more you want, the more you lose.
And the place where he sat remains empty to this day.