Imgur

The Living Tree

There was a famous outdoor marketplace, in a very large city in ancient times, where farmers and tradesmen sold many goods. Some of those goods were investments. Some of those goods could be found nowhere else on earth, and some of those goods were said to be “other worldly”.

There was a legend told amongst the merchants, passed from generation to generation, of two businessmen, and a wise widow who came to trade. They lived a long way off, and they wanted to make their investments count.

They’d all heard tell of a “rare and unimaginable deal” on the most valuable commodity of them all. Each had in their own mind what this treasure was. Each was willing to spend all they had for it, and the businessmen felt as if they were in competition to attain this limited commodity. While they humored the widow on the way to the market, and knew she too was seeking this same great thing, they did not consider her a match for themselves.

When they arrived at the market, the first businessman had already sent a scout ahead of him. He thought the treasure advertised was gold, and silver, and rare stones. This runner acted as the businessman’s agent, and bought up as much as he could. He’d amassed so much it had to be loaded on a ship. This man was a loud man, self-important, a bragger who loved showing off.

The second businessman knew this marketplace was a suburb of a large city. He knew there were many deals on land and on rare books of knowledge, and works of art. He bought up as many of these as he could. He too had to invest in several beasts of burden just to carry all the works of art, property titles, and whole libraries of rare works. This man was a thinker, a lover of ideas; he was even an empathetic man. Yet he could not seem to get past his own notions of life, what it was supposed to be.

Imgur
They all traveled the same, dusty road back to their hometown after the buying day was done. They had to pitch tents for the night and they discussed their deals. They did this around a large bonfire. The first businessman bragged that he had bought all the best metals and jewels in the marketplace for half of what it was worth. He bragged that even if half of it was false, he’d still be a very rich man (and that’s exactly what happened).

The second businessman bragged of all that he would learn, and of all the profit he would make selling art, and leasing land, and even bragged about how he might found his own city and make it a cultural center, with great libraries and museums. He did attain most of these things for himself.

Now the widow was curiously quiet. These businessmen, having exhausted themselves bragging about their own success, were now eaten up with curiosity over what the widow had purchased. They kept nudging her all along the journey to tell them, for who would travel such an arduous journey; over a year on ship and on beast through rough seas, over mountains, and now desert.

She said she would tell them only if they left her in their will. Obviously this was a strange request. Her middle-aged, slate grey eyes seemed to twinkle with a hidden secret. They wondered if she had plans to poison them, but soon dismissed the notion, because she was a woman of excellent repute. She sweetened the deal by saying that she would agree to marry the most handsome of their sons as well. Now, in her day, the widow was a gorgeous woman, and still was attractive even at her age now, but the men had to laugh at this last proposition. She would likely have passed away when their boys came of the age to marry, and they would in all likelihood outlive her by many years.

Knowing this they agreed. Then she pulled from her saddlebag a single book. It was a beautiful book to be sure, but was it worth her entire fortune?

That night, while she was asleep, the first of the businessmen stole into her tent, and took a peek at the book. He saw it as a collection of ancient stories, and moral codes. It spoke of things he didn’t understand, nor did he care to know. He did not see the secret pocket in the cover.

Later that night, the second businessman did exact same thing, only he found the secret pocket. In it was a small bag with some dirt in it, and a small seed. The seed had to be the smallest of seeds, he thought, as he looked at it. He pitied the woman for making such a poor exchange, and carefully placed the seed back where he found it, and put the book back in its proper place.

The first businessman relentlessly mocked her on the final leg back to town, while the other merely shook his head in pity and volunteered to care for her if she should need it. Several years later the true value of the book, and its seed was revealed. The businessman who invested in metal had lost nearly all his investment by the end of his life. His sons wasted much of what was left. They were braggers like their father, and never developed any skill for business, nor had any taste for wisdom, or ethics, or compassion.

The son of the second businessman was shrewd. He was an only son, and knowing he was precious to his father, he learned all the good lessons, and wisdoms, and ethics of his father, seeking to be his image as it were.

By the time his father passed away, much of the wealth owned by the first businessman had been acquired by this precious son’s father, and he did well by his father. The land of the widow, once seen as barren, now had a single large, strong, fruit-bearing tree on it. He’d heard of the promise his father made to the widow, but when he visited the property, he found not an old, desperate widow, but a gorgeous, vibrant young woman. She paid her courtesies to him and invited him in for a cup of tea. “Miss” he said politely, “I am here on behalf of my father. He made a promise, and I suppose it was made to your mother, but I am prepared to honor it. Do you need anything from me?”

She smiled, of course, knowingly. “I am the woman herself, to which your father made the promise. He was a good man, though a little short-sighted. I have in my hands a contract for all your wealth, plus your hand in marriage. It’s in my power to enforce it, but I really have need of nothing. So I am inclined to cast this contract into the hearth fire, if that is what you wish.”

And as he looked at her, and focused on her long, black hair and grey eyes, and the grace with which she spoke and carried herself, he merely replied “No, it is not what I wish. I wish to see this tree you have planted.”

If you want to see more stories like this: UPVOTE, RESTEEM, COMMENT please!