Astina's story is a very well written example of a parable. A parable is a story created to teach us a lesson about right and wrong, or to give us advice.
Many stories contain a message to their readers, but usually this isn't stated as clearly as in a parable. Rather, we have to work out what the meaning is for ourselves.
What do you think the message of 'The Man with a Wish' is? The love of your family is more valuable than any amount of money or material goods? Or, be careful what you wish for, because getting it might not make you happy?
Astina's story follows a poor farmer who's about to sell his only cow. We can all understand how attractive wealth would be to someone in his position.
But one way to make sure you communicate a message as clearly as possible is to make your story relevant to your reader's lives.
'The Man with a Wish' works very well exactly as it is. But I was wondering, if we took the basic structure of the story and set it in modern Hong Kong, whether our readers might identify more closely with it.
