The Growing Boxes

There once was an old wizard who had three sons called Balder; Sven and Eric
And, upon his deathbed, he gave each of his three sons a small box that was wrapped with bright paper and tied with a ribbon.
And he told the sons,
"These are growing boxes. Every day that they remain unopened they will grow a little larger and the fortune inside a little larger too. If you open them too soon you will only find a small sum of money inside but if you resist temptation and wait long enough you will find a fortune inside large enough to live off your whole life".
And so the three brothers took their boxes and tried to resist opening them for aslong as possible and every day they saw them grow a little larger and a little heavier as the fortune inside them grew.
But the eldest of the two brothers, Balder and Sven were too impatient and they opened their boxes after only a few months and, inside, each found 10 thousand pounds and so they went off and left their younger brother and lived like kings.
But because of the excessive lifestyles they lived, believe it or not, their money soon ran out and not only that, they ran up a mountain of debts that they couldn't pay.
But then Balder said to Sven,
"Don't worry. Eric did not open his box. He must have the wealth of a nation by now. We should just go and steal his money. Then we'll split it between us".
And so that is what they did.
Pawning some jewellery because they had no money, they each bought a pistol and some bullets and went to their old family home where Eric was still living with the intention of shooting and killing him and taking all the money in his box.
And banging on the door of the house they shouted,
"Eric. Open up. Its your brothers, Balder and Sven and we have come to pay you a visit".
But hearing his brothers at the door, Eric was very suspicious.
"I have not seen my brothers for five years", he thought, "In all those years they did not want to pay me a visit and now suddenly, after all this time they come to visit me? Theres only one explanation. They've spent all their money and want to take mine".
And peering out of an upstairs window, Eric saw his brothers standing infront of his door with pistols in the hands.
"What will I do?", he thought, "If I don't answer the door they won't go away. They'll shoot down the door and then kill me".
Feeling that he would probably soon be murdered, Eric decided to open his box, which had by now grown almost as large as a room just to look at his money for a brief moment before he died
Because the lid was too large for him to take off however, he got an axe and used its blade to cut a door in the side of the box.
But when he entered the box he saw nothing inside but an old stick.
"What?", he thought to himself, unhappily, "After waiting all this time. Five whole years all I get is an old stick".
But then he noticed a note lying next to the stick and, picking up the note, he read it.
"Dear Eric. Because you have shown yourself to be the son with the most wisdom and will power", it said, "To you I leave something more precious than money. My wizards wand of power".
And so, picking up the wand, Eric used it to turn his two brothers into crows and, keeping them locked in a cage, vowed only to let them out when they had learned to be kind then, becoming a great wizard like his father, Eric lived happily ever after