A wealthy farmer was once offered all the land he could walk on in a day provided he returned by sun down to the point at which he started . To get a head start , early the next morning , the farmer started covering ground quickly because he wanted to get as much land as he could . Even thought he was tired , he kept going all afternoon because he didn't want to lose this once -in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain more wealth .
Late in the afternoon , he remembered that the condition he had to fulfil to get the land was to get back to the starting point by sun down . His greed had gotten him far from the starting point . He started his return journey , keeping an eye on how close he was to sundown . The closer it got to sundown, the faster he ran . He was exhausted and out of breath and he push himself beyond the point of endurance . He collapsed upon reaching the starting point and died . He did make it before sundown . He was buried and all the land , he needed was a small plot .