Mr. Maurice's attitude toward money is simple and straightforward. He wants it. As much as he can get his hoofs on. Whenever a check comes into our home, delivered by the postman, you can be sure Mr. Maurice's hoof is out, awaiting his cut. Or better yet, the whole thing. Just sign it over to Mr. M., please.

To be blunt, he is one greedy little pig.

This is a distressing development, because he resides in a home whose occupants live simply, with few possessions, and seldom think or worry about money. His human companions cannot understand how Mr. Maurice could have become such a covetous little creature. Worse yet, he's proud of being a greedy pig.

Mr. Maurice's shopping list, in contrast to theirs, is invariably large, grandiose, and growing. No one knows exactly what potential delights it contains. We only know that if Mr. Maurice is denied too many of the goodies he’s carefully listed, he becomes cranky and ornery. Sometimes, he’s even inclined to try and bite your hand, if it contains no check or bank notes for him.

Now and then, he will even threaten to move to new quarters, to live among humans who share his avaricious motivations and will ensure that he continues to enjoy a vibrant, expansive lifestyle – the kind to which he has become inordinately accustomed in his present abode.

Oddly, most members of Mr. Maurice's extended piggie family are far less grasping and money-hungry. In fact, they seldom mention money at all. They appear entirely content to reside in comfortable surroundings among a congenial group of happy little pigs. With the exception of their lord and master, Mr. Maurice, that is, who seldom ceases to moan about his alleged near-poverty.

For Mr. Maurice, a happy family – while desirable and satisfying – is simply not good enough. Sadly, he is envious of all the greedy humans he observes on the TV. He envies the real people in the news, from financial barons and Wall Street wizards to questionably-talented celebrities who are paid bountifully for doing little (an ideal situation, in his view), right down to the characters in dramas who manipulate and maneuver so that they will come out ever wealthier in the end.

Mr. Maurice once saw the movie Wall Street on TV, and failed to understand why some humans were critical of Gordon Gecko, the avaricious character portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, for proclaiming that "greed is good." To Mr. Maurice, that's a simple, unassailable truth. How could anyone object to such a hard-and-fast fact?

More to his liking are the words of Fred C. Dobbs, as played by Humphrey Bogart in the classic 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. After struggling for months to dig gold out of the Mexican mountains, his colleagues are ready to leave their mine with a windfall of $20,000. Not Fred (Humphrey). "Small potatoes," he snorts with disdain. Mr. Maurice could not agree more.