A farmer once drove to the market with his cart full of golden yellow and sweet pears. "Wonderful pears for sale, people, come and buy!" he kept shouting. One of the monks from the nearby monastery heard this too. He came closer and asked: "I would love a single pear." The farmer looked at the monk and shook his head. Of course, monks had no money, so they couldn't buy pears, but he wanted to do the big business here and not give any of his fruit away. The monk looked at him sadly and said, "You have so many pears on your cart and surely you can spare just one," holding out his hand pleadingly. The farmer looked at the ragged monk, became angry and shouted: "Get lost, you hungry wretch!".

"Why are you getting so angry, it's only about a pear?" asked the monk. The farmer began to shout and curse in anger. This disturbed the other traders, who wanted to sell their goods in peace. "Why don't you give him a pear and then shut up!" they said. But the farmer wouldn't give up a single one. Finally, a merchant came out of his store, gave the farmer a coin and pressed a pear into the monk's hand. "There, now it's quiet!"

"Thank you," said the monk. "I have nothing and know no greed. So now I invite you all to eat pears with me."

In the meantime, many people had gathered around the monk and one of them shouted with a laugh: "How are you going to share with us, you only have one?"

"Wait, we'll have more in a moment, I just have to plant the pear tree first." He began to eat the pear. Smacking his lips, he lapped up the sweet juice and ate until he only had the seeds left in his hand. "Now I need a hoe and water." Someone immediately rushed to fetch the required items and, in front of the onlookers, the monk chopped a hole in the ground, placed the pear seed in it and poured water over it. The people were amazed to see that a seedling soon sprouted from the ground. It grew and grew and became a tree with a trunk, branches and leaves before their eyes. Shortly afterwards, it began to blossom and soon thick pears were hanging from it, juicy yellow and ripe. The monk climbed the tree, took one pear at a time and gave them away to the bystanders. Before long, all the pears had been eaten. The monk took the axe, chopped down the tree, took the trunk on his shoulder and walked away, waving his hand.

All this time, the farmer had been watching the monk with his mouth open. Now that he had gone, he looked around and could not believe his eyes: the pears were gone and so was the axle of his cart. "A thief, a thief!" shouted the farmer and ran after the monk, but he had long since disappeared. Only the wagon axle was left outside the city gate. When the farmer returned to his cart, the people laughed. "That's what you get for being so stingy!" they said and the farmer bowed his head in shame. People enjoyed telling each other the story of the wonderful pear tree for a long time and now you know it too.

Märchen aus Tibet, aus: D. Jaenike, Baummärchen aus aller Welt, Mutabor Verlag,  englische Fassung Lysander Jaenike © Mutabor Märchenstiftung