6-63. The Lazy Boy and the Coin

Once upon a time there lived a very wealthy merchant. He was not happy with his only son. The boy wasn’t intelligent; he wasn’t creative; and, even worse, he didn’t like to work.
     His mother loved him anyway, and she always made excuses for him. "He’s not lazy," she would say to her husband. "He just takes his time because he wants everything to be perfect."
     Other times she would say, "Our son is intelligent. He hides it from others. He doesn’t want to make his friends look stupid."
     The merchant didn’t believe any of it, and he would just wave his wife away.
     When the son was old enough to marry, the mother begged her husband to find him a wife. But the merchant thought his son was too stupid, too boring, and too lazy to marry. The boy’s mother wanted him to marry, so she went to see her husband often.
     She told her husband that she believed her son possessed a large amount of wisdom and intelligence. The merchant became angry with his wife, but she was too stubborn to notice. Finally he had had enough.
     "Look here," he said. "I have heard these stories many times. But you have never once proved them. Mothers are blind. I do not believe anything you have said. But it is too hot to argue. You have won. I will give that fool, our son, one more chance.
     "Give him this one small coin. Tell him to go to the market. I want him to buy a single item with the coin. That one item must be something to eat, something to drink, something to plant, and something to feed our goat."
     As the boy walked toward the market, he started to think, "What can I buy with this coin? Something to eat and drink and do all those other things? Surely this is impossible!"
     The boy sat down under a tree. He needed time to think and rest. As he was sitting there, the blacksmith's daughter came by. She looked at the boy and saw that he was very unhappy. "What’s the matter?" she asked.
     The boy looked at her and said, "My father has given me an impossible task. He wants me to buy one item with this coin. And that item must be something to eat, something to drink, something to plant, and something to feed our goat."
     "I know what you can do," she said. "Go and buy a watermelon with the coin. It will provide everything your father said. Give it to him, and your parents will be pleased."
     The boy nodded. The girl was right! His family could eat the watermelon, drink its juice, plant its seeds, and feed its rind to their goat. "Thanks," he said.
     The boy ran to the market and got a watermelon for his father. When the merchant’s wife saw her son’s cleverness, she was very pleased. "Look," she said to her husband, "our son has succeeded."
     "Actually, Mom," said the boy, "I had help. Without the advice of the blacksmith’s daughter, I would have failed."
     The father was impressed. His son hadn’t found the solution by himself, but he was honest enough to admit it.
     Honesty was a worthy quality. The merchant was satisfied that his son would make a good husband because he was honest. He invited the blacksmith and his family for dinner. The families decided their son and daughter would marry.
     The blacksmith was glad that his daughter would marry into such a wealthy family. The merchant’s son and the blacksmith’s daughter were happy because they made a good team.
     The boy became a hardworking husband. The boy’s father was glad that he had given his son another chance, and the boy’s mother was happy because her son was wise, honest, and hardworking, just as she always knew he was.