The Walnut Tree
Long ago a great walnut tree grew beside a cool forest stream. Every summer the lovely tree gave travellers cool rest in its dark shade. In autumn its branches filled with fresh and tasty walnuts. The forest birds sang happily among its green leaves. The walnut tree felt very happy, because it was useful to people.
One day a group of villagers came down the old road. The villagers saw the ripe walnuts at the top and stopped at once. They took big stones and hard sticks from the ground. They threw the stones cruelly at the branches and hit them with sticks. Many branches broke, green leaves fell, and the tree felt great pain. The walnuts dropped to the ground, and the laughing villagers picked them up.
The poor tree stood in deep sorrow, with wounds on its trunk. "I give you shade and fruit, but you give me pain," it whispered. After the villagers ate and went away, a soft wind began to blow. The old tree looked at its fallen leaves and broken branches and sighed deeply. This ingratitude of the people hurt its kind heart very much. Still, by the law of nature, it decided to wait for spring with patience.
To answer a generous friend with cruelty is a great injustice.
The tree with fruit gets the stones.