Enter, stranger, but take heed Of what awaits the sin of greed, For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay most dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors A treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned, beware Of finding more than treasure there.

These lines are presented as a warning verse associated with Gringotts Wizarding Bank in J. K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel. In the story, Harry and Hagrid visit Gringotts in Diagon Alley to retrieve items from Harry’s vault and, separately, to collect a mysterious package from Vault 713. The poem functions as a moral and practical admonition to would-be thieves, reinforcing Gringotts’ reputation for formidable magical security and the goblins’ strict view of property and ownership. It also foreshadows later plot developments involving attempted break-ins and the consequences of trying to take what is not rightfully one’s own.

The verse frames greed as both a moral failing (“sin of greed”) and a self-defeating strategy: taking without earning incurs an inevitable, disproportionate cost (“pay most dearly”). Its sing-song rhyme mimics a traditional cautionary inscription, but the content is menacing—suggesting that punishment is built into the very act of trespass. In the Harry Potter world, it also signals the goblins’ ethic of ownership and repayment, contrasting human assumptions about possession. Narratively, the warning heightens tension around hidden “treasure” and implies that beneath the bank’s floors lies not only wealth but lethal protections—an atmosphere of enchantment where moral transgression triggers material peril.