THE WONDERFUL PEAR TREE A Chinese Folk Tale

Once upon a time, a countryman came into the town on market day, and brought a load of very special pears with him to sell. He set up his good barrow at a good corner, and soon had a great crowd round him; for every one knew he always sold extra fine pears, though he did also ask an extra high price. Now, while he was crying up his fruit, a poor, old, ragged, hungry-looking priest stopped just in front of the barrow and humbly begged him one of the pears. But the countryman refused. He called the priest bad names.

“Good sir,” said the priest, “you have hundreds of pears on your barrow. I only ask you for one. You would never even know you had lost one. Really, you need not get angry.”

“Give him a rotten pear; that will make him happy,” said a man in the crowd. “The old priest is quite right; you’d never miss it.”

“I’ve said I won’t, and I won’t, and I won’t” cried the countryman; and all the people close by began shouting. The constable of the market, hearing hubhub, hurried up; and when he had made out what was the matter, pulled some cash out of his purse, bought a pear, and gave it to the priest. For he was afraid that the noise would come to the ears of the mandarin who was just being carried down the street.

The old priest took the pear with a long bow, and held it up in front of the crowd, saying, “You all know that I have no home, no parents, no children, no food, because I gave up everything when I became a priest. So it puzzles me how anyone can be so selfish and so stingy as to refuse to give me one single pear. No I am quite a different sort of man from this countryman. I have here some perfectly exquisite pears, and I shall feel most deeply honored if you will accept them from me.”

“Why on earth didn’t you eat them yourself, instead of begging for one?” asked man in the crowd.

“Ah,” answered the priest, “I must grow them first.”

So he ate up the pear, only leaving a single pip. Then he took a pick, dug a deep hole in the ground at his feet, and planted the pip. Which he covered all over with earth. “Will someone fetch me some hot water to water this?” he asked. The people, who were crowding around, though he was only joking, but one of them ran and fetched a kettle of boiling water and gave it to the priest, who very carefully poured it over the place where he had sowed the pip. Then, almost while he was pouring, they saw, first a tiny green sprout, then another, pushing their heads above the ground; then one leaf uncurled, then another, while shoots keep growing taller and taller; there stood before them a young tree with a few branches and few leaves; then more leaves; then flowers; and last of all, clusters of huge. Ripe sweet-smelling pears weighing the branches down the ground! Now the priest’s face shone with pleasure, and the crowd roared with delight when he picked the pears, handling them with a bow to each man present. Then the priest took pick again, hacked at the tree until it fell with a crash. He carried the tree, leaves and all, and with a final bow, he walked away.

All the time this had been going on, the countryman, quite forgetting his barrow and pears, had been in the midst of the crowd, standing on the tips of his toes, and straining eyes to try to make out what was happening. But when the old priest had gone and the crowd was getting thin, he turned to his barrow and saw with horror that it was empty! Every single pear had gone! In a moment he understood what had happened. The pears the old priest had been so generous in giving away were the countryman’s. What was more, one of the handles of his barrow was missing. He was in a towering rage, and rushed as fast as he could after the priest. But, just as he turned the corner, he saw lying close to the wall, the barrow-handle, which without any doubt, was the very “pear tree” which the priest cut down. All the people in the market were simply splitting their sides with laughter; but as for the priest, no one saw him anymore.