ARMENIAN FOLK TALE SPELLS OUT THE TERMS OF GRATITUDE
by Amy Friedman

Cape Cod Times
rticle?AID=/20081209/LIFE/812090335/-1/NEWS
Dec 9 2008
MA

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of six folk tales,
myths and legends drawn from the farthest reaches of the globe.

Long ago there was a man who heaved a carpet bag over his shoulder
and set off on a journey. He had been feeling weak and ill, and he
thought travel would be good for him. As he trudged along, he came to
a spring and saw water bubbling to the surface. He longed for a drink.

A group of women was gathered around the spring, filling their buckets,
and the traveler asked, "Would one of you spare some of that sweet
water to quench a man’s thirst?"

"Go away," one of the women cried, and another echoed her words until
all of the women were shooing him away. All but one.

"Why, shall we not share our water?" she asked her friends, and she
filled her bucket and handed it to the man.

He drank with pleasure, and then he looked at the women again and
asked, "Does anyone have a place for a weary traveler to sleep?"

Again it was the generous woman who offered a corner of her house. She
led the stranger home, and when she introduced him to her husband,
he too welcomed the man. "Our home is yours."

Now the couple was poor, but when they sat down to eat, the man asked
for a big bowl of rice. When he finished the bowl, he asked for more
food — he was very hungry. The woman fed him bowl after bowl, until at
last she had nothing else to feed him. "I’m sorry," she told the man,
"I cannot offer you another bite. We have nothing left."

They all went to sleep, but when the couple awoke the next morning,
the man was gone. When they opened their cupboards, they saw that
they were filled with sacks of rice and flour and beans, along with
buckets of berries and baskets of fruit.

The couple realized they had fed a special traveler. "Our visitor
was a wizard," they said, and they were grateful.

Meanwhile, the wizard continued on his journey. Soon, he passed a
man carrying a bundle of wood. "What are you doing?" the wizard asked.

"Eking out a living," said the poor woodsman. "There’s nothing
more I can do." So the wizard turned the wood into a big, thriving
vineyard. "Tend your vines and prosper!" he cried, and went on his way.

Before long, he came to a man sitting in a grove of dying trees. "What
a fine orchard you have!" he said, and a moment later those dying
trees were thick and leafy and filled with fine, juicy apples.

The wizard cried, "Work and prosper, and long life to you!" Then he
walked on.

Before long, he saw a man carrying a sack of rocks on his back, sweat
pouring down his face. The wizard called out, "Brother, what a fine
flock of sheep you have," and sure enough, that bag of rocks turned
into a flock of fat sheep. "May you prosper," the wizard called as
he journeyed on.

Now the man with the vineyard and the man with the orchard and the
man with the flock of sheep were amazed, but they never gave a second
thought to the stranger.

A year passed, and the wizard, after walking through the land and
offering his gifts to many, decided it was time to return to where
he began his journey. He was well again.

So he turned around and started to retrace his steps. After a few days
he came across the shepherd he had helped, who sat by a fire. He was
roasting a lamb over the coals.

"Could you spare a taste for me?" the wizard asked the shepherd,
but the shepherd squinted up at him and said, "Have you helped me to
tend my flocks? Only those who work deserve to be paid."

The wizard walked on, whispering as he did, and behind him that flock
of sheep turned into a big bag of rocks.

A day later, the wizard came to the orchard, where many men were
picking apples. "Would you spare a bag of apples for a poor man?" he
asked the owner.

"I pay my men and offer no charity to the lazy," the orchard owner
said, and so the wizard walked on, but behind his back that orchard
turned into a field of barren trees.

Now he came to the vineyard, and seeing the field filled with workers,
he stopped to ask if he might pick a bag full of grapes.

The workers shook their heads. "Our master gives nothing away,"
they said sorrowfully, and so the wizard walked on, empty-handed,
but behind him the orchard vanished and in its place the workers saw
only a pile of wood.

And then the wizard reached the house where he had passed a pleasant
night a year before, and when he knocked on the door, the couple
opened it and smiled with delight. "Welcome," they cried, "we are so
glad you have returned. Please, come in and let us treat you. Whatever
you wish!"

The wizard smiled. "You are good people," he said, "and from this
moment on, each night you will find a sack of gold coins in your
cupboard. You will use them well, and you will always be happy."

And with those words the wizard bowed and departed.