kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

kill the goose that lays the golden egg(s)

To ruin or destroy something that brings one wealth. Firing the programmer who created your most successful app is like killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
See also: golden, goose, kill, lay, that
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

Destroy a source of riches through stupidity or greed, as in If he never gives his loyal customers a break on some items in his store, he'll kill the goose that lays the golden eggs . This expression, already a proverb in the late 1400s, alludes to Aesop's fable about a farmer whose goose lays one golden egg a day, and who kills the goose in the mistaken belief that he'll get all the eggs at once.
See also: egg, golden, goose, kill, lay, that
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

Destroy a source of wealth through greed, neglect, or stupidity. This term refers to Aesop’s fable about a farmer whose goose suddenly begins to lay eggs of gold, one at a time. Wanting to get all the eggs at once, the farmer kills the goose, only to find that he has lost the source of golden eggs. An English proverb from the fifteenth century on, it was widely applied to numerous situations in the nineteenth century. Thoreau’s version was, “Every fowl lays golden eggs for him who can find them” (Autumn, 1860).
See also: egg, golden, goose, kill, lay, that
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • kill the goose that lays the golden egg
  • kill the goose that lays the golden egg(s)
  • cook your goose
  • cook (one's) goose
  • cook goose
  • cook somebody's goose
  • cook someone's goose
  • cook someone's goose, to
  • swipe right
  • swipe left
References in periodicals archive
We may kill the goose that lays the golden eggs if we listen to some alarmists who have recently filled the media with scaremongering predictions that the Philippine population will double from its present 109 million in the coming decades if we don't aggressively implement a population control program through the existing RH Law.
"Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs," Chu warned of the negative effects of such a tax.
APHRASE often used by American market commentators over the years is "don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs".
While it is understandable that government needs to raise much needed revenue to service our significant public debt, we must be careful that we don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Agriculture contributes to more than a third of our economy while also creating the most jobs.
No justification to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Government should have initiated privatization with the sale of unprofitable units after some reforms as sale of national assets amounts to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
I am old enough to recall gates of under 20,000 - do not take us for granted or you will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Only greedy fools knowingly kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Therefore, as McCormick warns, we should take great care that regulations in the name of global warming "not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs."
Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. I don't want to wait for the saintly who are not motivated by wealth to develop an AIDS vaccine.
``If you go abroad, you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs,'' said one industry source, referring to the tax-free status enjoyed by those who place spread bets in the UK.