The Stingy and the Generous

(A folk tale from Sambas)

Long, long time ago there lived two brothers. They had completely different characters. The big brother was very stingy and greedy. He never shared his wealth with poor people. The little brother was exactly the opposite. He was generous and kind to poor people. He even had no money left because he had shared it with the poor.

One day the generous brother was sitting in his garden when suddenly a little bird fell on his lap. It was wounded. He took care of it, fed it and put it in a nice cage. After the bird was healthy, the generous brother let it fly. After some time the bird returned to him and gave him a watermelon seed.

The generous brother, then, planted the seed and watered it until it grew into a good watermelon plant. Yet, the plant was very strange. It had only one fruit; a big and heavy one. When the watermelon was ripe enough, the generous brother picked it and cut it into two. How surprised he was. The watermelon was full of gold.

The generous brother sold the gold and became very rich. He built a big house and bought a very large field. Still, he never forgot to share his wealth with the poor.

Moral value:

We should to share our wealth with the poor.