The Paw in the Bottle

“Have you ever heard how they catch monkeys in Brazil, Julie? . . . Let me tell you. They put a nut in a bottle, and tie the bottle to a tree. The monkey grasps the nut, but the neck of the bottle is too narrow for the monkey to withdraw its paw and the nut. You would think the monkey would let go of the nut and escape, wouldn’t you? But it never does. It is so greedy it never releases the nut and is always captured. Remember that story, Julie. Greed is a dangerous thing. If you give way to it, sooner or later you will be caught.”
Julie is hard, ruthless, amoral . . . a good-time girl who would stop at nothing to get what she wants. And when she is given the chance to play a major role in a robbery she jumps at it. Luck is always with her. Even when everything goes wrong with the plan, and the gang-leader is arrested for a murder he has not committed, Julie comes out of it with a fat salary and an apartment in the right neighborhood. But she can’t stop, and fate catches up with her, like it does for the Brazilian monkey.