The Giant Turnip and the Greedy Brother
World Fairy Tales · 1 min read
A poor but honest farmer grew an extraordinarily enormous turnip in his small garden, so large it required a cart and two oxen simply to move it, and decided that such a remarkable specimen deserved to be gifted to the king himself rather than simply eaten. The king, genuinely delighted by such a sincere, unusual gift from a man with so little else to offer, rewarded him generously with gold, land, and a fine carriage.
The farmer's older brother, considerably wealthier but far greedier, heard of this reward and immediately began calculating how he might receive an even greater one himself. Reasoning that if a mere turnip earned his brother a fortune, a truly magnificent gift would surely earn him something even grander, he selected his finest horse, saddled it with his best gear, and presented it to the king with great ceremony, expecting gold, jewels, or land in return, confident his gift far outclassed a simple vegetable.
The king, having already received the most remarkable turnip he was ever likely to see, considered what gift could possibly match a fine horse in turn — and, with a perfectly straight face, presented the greedy brother with the very turnip his own sibling had given, declaring it a fair and equal trade for such a fine animal. The brother, forced to accept the exchange in front of the entire court without protest, left humiliated and furious, having learned too late that greedily trying to out-give someone else's genuine gesture, purely for a bigger reward, rarely earns what pure sincerity earned the first time around.
Moral of the story
Greedily trying to out-give someone else's genuine gesture purely for a bigger reward rarely earns what pure sincerity earned the first time.