The Travellers and the Plane Tree
On a hot summer day two tired travellers walked along a long road. The sun was very bright in the sky and the air was terribly hot. The travellers looked for a big tree to rest and cool down. Beside the road they saw an old plane tree, huge and full of leaves. They ran at once into its wide shade and sat down on the green grass. They felt the cool wind, took a deep breath and became very happy.
After a while one of the travellers looked up at the branches of the tree. He turned to his friend and started to speak in a bored voice. "This plane tree is really a useless tree, good for nothing," he said. "It has no fruit to eat and it gives us no food," he added. The other traveller nodded and agreed with these words of his friend. The tree heard the unfair words, felt very sad and suddenly began to speak.
"You are really very ungrateful and thoughtless people!" said the plane tree. "Now you rest in my cool shade, but you still speak badly about me," it went on. "You take my help, so it is not right to call me useless," it said. The two travellers heard these wise words, felt ashamed and said nothing. We must always know the value of the things that help us. Never throw a stone into the well you drink from.