2. Which answer does the best job of explaining (and not just stating) a theme? The theme of this story is greed and how bad it is. I agree that greed is a bad thing.
The theme of the story is how the three sons wouldn't listen to their father when he told them they should work hard to earn the money they wanted
The theme of this story is don't expect to make a lot of money if you won't go out and work for it.
The theme of the story is the effect of greed on how a person sees the world. The sons wanted gold so badly that they couldn't see how working hard could make them rich.