Apple Tree – C. Schmid

Old Rupert was sitting in the shade of a big apple tree in front of his house. His grandchildren were busy eating the beautiful apples and they were never tried of praising the delicious fruit.

Their grandfather said to them: “Now I’ll tell you how this tree came here. More than 50 years ago I was standing lazily in an uncultivated field, just about where you now see that apple tree, and I was complaining of my poverty to my rich neighbour,”

“Oh,” I said, “how happy I would be if I could receive a hundred rupees from my poor possessions.”

The neighbour, who was a very wise man, said to me: “It is so simple. All you need do is begin well. Right where you are standing there are hidden in the ground more than one hundred rupees. It’s up to you to dig them out.”

“I was then a young fellow without much understanding and the following night I dug up the ground and made a big hole but I found nothing.”

The following morning when my neighbour saw the hole he laughed so much that he could not contain himself: “Idiot, I didn’t mean that you had to dig a hole. However, I will reward you with this young apple plant. Place it in the hole and in a few years you will see your rupees come into being.”

“I planted the tree. It grew strong and with the years it became the great tree that see in front of you. The value of such delicious fruit over the years has rendered me certainly more than hundred rupees and even today this tree is a capital which gives me great returns. I have never forgotten the lesson which my neighbour taught me.”