THE GOLDEN STAR-FRUIT TREE

    A long time ago there was a rich old man living in Vietnam. He had two sons. They had very different attitudes.

    The older brother was very greedy, and the younger brother was very kind. When the old man died, the brothers divided his father's wealth into two parts. The big brother took almost everything. He gave his younger brother only a small piece of land, with a star-fruit tree in front of it. The younger brother did not mind. From then on he lived there and made his living only by selling star fruits from the tree.

    Unfortunately, a very big raven often came and ate all the ripe fruits. At first he was too afraid of the raven, and did not know what to do. But one day he dared to approach the raven. He begged to it not to eat the fruits. "If you eat the fruits, I will have nothing to sell to the market, and my family will starve."

    Surprisingly the raven was not angry. He replied, "I need the fruits too. Can I have them and I'll pay you with gold. Bring a 1-meter long bag, and I'll bring to a place full of gold and you can fill the bag full with gold." The younger brother then told his wife to make a 1-meter long bag. When the bag was done, he climbed on the raven's back and they flew to a place full of gold. He filled the bag full with gold, and then flied back home on the raven's back. From then on, the younger brother and his family could live happily in luxury.

    On the commemoration of his father's death, he invited his older brother to come to his house. Thinking that his brother had a poor house, the big brother refused to come. But because his younger brother insisted, he and his wife finally decided to come. When they got to the younger brother's house, they were surprised to see that he was now very rich.

    He asked his younger brother how he had got all his wealth, and the younger brother was happy to tell him the truth. Then the greedy brother and his wife offered the younger brother to trade all their fortune for the star-fruit tree. The younger brother gladly accepted the offer. Soon the older brother and his family moved to the house with the star-fruit tree. When the raven came for the star fruits, the older brother made the same plea. As expected, the raven told him to bring a 1-meter long bag. However, the older brother was not as lucky as his younger brother. Because of his greediness, he also finally died.

Adapted from:www.vietspring.org/egend/caykhe.html, visited on 10 October 2014 at 10.44 pm
 

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