Once upon a time, Kubera wanted to impress Lord Shiva and for this he organised a grand feast and decided to invite Lord Shiva and his family to it. He made all preparations and he went to Lord Shiva’s abode. There, he humbly bowed before Lord Shiva and invited him for the feast. Lord Shiva accepted his invitation and Kubera left the place.
Back at his place, Kubera had all preparations going on in full swing. The entire banquet hall was filled with an assortment of dishes ranging from one end of the room to the other. Out of the blue, Lord Ganesha came in front of Kubera. Now, Kubera was surprised to see that Lord Shiva and the other members of his family had not come. So he asked Ganesha as to why they had not come and he replied saying that he was busy and hence only he had come. Ganesha then asked him to take him to the banquet hall so he could eat. Kubera gladly took him there and once Ganesha sat, it hardly took him a moment to finish all the food that was placed there. He was still hungry and so he called out to Kubera to get more food.
Kubera then ordered the cooks to make more food and bring it to the hall immediately. Soon, the hall was once again filled with dishes from end to end and Ganesha once again took no longer than a moment to gobble up everything. This cycle of preparation and consumption of food went on for lots of time and soon Kubera came to the inevitable conclusion that he will never be able to satisfy the hunger of Ganesha and hence he prayed to Lord Shiva.
Lord Shiva appeared in front of Kubera and at once he begged for forgiveness from Lord Shiva. He told him that he had realised his folly and was sorry for having tried to show off his wealth. Lord Shiva then told him that he should be saying this to Ganesha instead of him and so Kubera went to Ganesha. He went and asked forgiveness from Ganesha, who readily accepted his apology. Ganesha then told him that a single apple offered with devotion could satisfy his hunger when compared to a feast. Kuber had then learnt his lesson and changed his ways.