It is good to remember that Jesus’ contemporaries lived lives of immense hardship, under very harsh social and political conditions. Famine or land appropriation were a constant threat for subsistence farmers, suffering under excruciating taxation practices.
In this situation, the landowner who stored his surplus crop, instead of helping to feed and support poorer farmers, would not have won the sympathy of Jesus’ listeners. They will have enjoyed this simple reminder that even unscrupulous people like this landowner will die, and his grand plans will look very foolish.
The parable is told as a warning against greed, but Luke is offering a deeper theological meaning. What are the ways in which I am ‘rich toward God’?