Short Story written by: Ana Canti

The only road into town was through a big meadow which had an apple tree in the middle of it. Beautiful and lonely, his branches had were shaped like hands and the trunk was strong and tall, and shone from far.

One day, a man who was tired of walking, rested on his trunk, and the grateful tree let an apple fall in front of the man, who happily ate the tasty apple.

The tree was very happy to help those in need, humans, animals or any creature in nature, as he was a very special tree.

One sunny day, another traveller was on his way into town, and was hungry, tired, sweaty and thirsty. The beautiful apples hanging from the branches captured the traveller´s attention and he kicked the trunk to try to get some apples.

The saddened tree decided to teach him a lesson. He dropped an apple beside the traveller, who devoured it, but after a few minutes began to feel sick.

A little kid who was around, approached the tree and said:

– “Thank you apple tree for being so nice, giving us fresh shade on these sunny days!”

The tree knew the kid was honest, so he let an apple fall which the kid ate happily. The traveller, who thought that the apples were bad, saw how the kid ate the apple without complaining of a stomach ache.

– “Thank you apple tree for giving me your nice fruit, so delicious and healthy!”

The man was shocked and realised that he had behaved badly and said regretfully:

– Thank you apple tree for giving me shadow, I´m sorry for having been rude. I´m hungry but your fruit is sour and caused me to get a stomach ache.

The tree understood him and gave him a shiny and juicy apple that took his pain away. The man was very thankful and felt guilty about kicking him, so he took his bag and began to walk off. Suddenly the tree began to drop so many apples that the man and the kid could fill their pockets.

They both hugged and kissed the tree and then continued on their way. The tree felt proud and happy to have seen the man change his behavior.

-“I wanted to teach him a lesson, but he taught me one. There´s nothing more special than to recognise and correct your mistakes“.

And that´s how they all learnt a lesson. The traveller was not rude with any living being again and the tree grew to be full of love and wisdom.

 

THE END

 

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