Daily Parable: Two Brothers Lived on the Edge of a Forest

Once upon a time, there lived two brothers Peter and Zac, who were orphans. Peter was the elder sibling, and ever since their parents died, he had been mistreating his younger sibling.

Zac had no one to complain to because they only live alone on the edge of a forest. Peter was very mean to Zac, he ate up all the food and took all his good clothes.

He was always sad and hurt because he was older than him and feared him. Zac did not want to stand up for himself because he did not want to upset his brother.

On the other hand, Peter did not feel bad about ill-treating him and continued to do so for years. One day, Peter went into the forest and to find some firewood to sell in the market.

He walked along the forest and went chopping around the branches of a tree. Peter then came upon a magical tree, and the tree talked to him.

The tree said, “Oh kind sir, please do not cut my branches. If you spare me, I will give you my golden apples.” Peter was stunned at the tree but agreed.

However, he became disappointed with the number of apples the tree gave him. He was then overcome by greed and threatened to cut the entire trunk if the tree didn’t give him more apples.

The magical tree instead showered him with hundreds upon hundreds of tiny needles. Peter fell to the ground and cried in pain as the sun began to set down the horizon.

There was no one else around to help him, and he was bleeding from all the needle penetration and yelled for help, but no one could hear him.

Back home, Zac grew worried that it was already dawn and his brother had not returned. He wondered where he could be because he does not usually come back at night.

He then left to go and look for him and walked into the forest, calling for him. As he neared his location, Peter could hear him calling his name and yelled out, "Over here!"

Zac then rushed to where he could hear his voice and found him with hundreds of needles in his skin. He ran to him and removed each needle with painstaking love.

After he managed to remove all of them, Peter apologized for treating him poorly and promised to be better. The tree overheard him and saw the change in his heart and gave them all the golden apples they could ever need.

The moral of this parable is that it is important to be kind and compassionate as it will always be rewarded in more ways than one.

If you enjoyed this story, read up about another about the milkmaid and her pail, who was on her way to the market when a distraction happened.