General Question
What's a modern-day tale of debt collection--where the services or privileges have been enjoyed, and now the all-too-heavy bill comes due?
Mythology and folklore offer many a cautionary tale to the effect that you can’t ride free: sooner or later you must pay—sometimes far more heavily than you expected—for benefits that fall your way, most especially when you enjoy some extraordinary good fortune that required bending the rules. In the old stories, a god or magical being granted someone a special favor in return for a careless promise, or someone pledged her future firstborn in return for the granting of a passionate wish today.
Examples:
The myth of King Midas
The myth of the Trojan Horse
The myth of Merlin and Arthur
The tale of Faust
The story of Rumpelstiltskin
The story of Rapunzel
The story of the Pied Piper
Question:
What are some modern-day examples of tales that exploit this theme or deliver this moral?
I’m looking for contemporary movies and fiction, not modern retellings of those same ancient tales, whose message is essentially the same: you’ve danced the dance, and now the piper must be paid.
This question is kind of a replacement for this one.
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