Once upon a time, there was a Little Sapling who lived in a little forest surrounded by all his family.

Every day, he would leisurely bask under the sunlight, feel a gentle breeze caress the tip of his leafs and listen to the melodious warble of the birds. Life was so simple and peaceful that he couldn’t help getting bored at some point.

Eventually, while listening to the small talk between the some animals, he happened to learn about the existence of a village situated on the outskirts of the forest. The beings that lived in that place where called “humans” and they were very dangerous creature.

Instead of being scared, the Little Sapling felt very curious about that mysterious place. He wished so hard to go there that one day, he got his dream fulfilled.

One day, there was a farmer passing by. He took notice of the Little Sapling who was calling out to him and went to great him as well.

Seeing the man coming near, the Little Sapling was so overjoyed he said without thinking: “Master, take me with you to where you live and show me around. I always wanted to go there.”

The farmer didn’t refuse right away and instead asked: “Why would I take you with me? What advantages would you bring me?”

The Little Sapling felt helpless at first but then had a good idea and said: “It’s true that I’m still young and can’t bear much fruits but I’m willing to handing all of them to you in exchange of your kindness.”

The farmer couldn’t hide the smile crept out over his face, even reaching his ears, he readily agreed. Next, he reached out to dig up the Little Sapling with some effort before carrying him over his shoulder and heading back to the village. Once there, he planted the Little Sapling in his own garden, gave him some water and fertilizer before taking his leave.

The Little Sapling felt very happy and satisfied. He was very interested in his new environment and started greeting everyone around him.

He said hello to the carrots and radishes on his left and praised the red cabbages on his right for their beautiful appearance akin to blooming roses. He told them a bit about his own home and asked them about theirs. They said they were born here and still hadn’t been to somewhere else. But they added that after they would become all full and ripe, the farmer would take them away to somewhere else, never to come back again.

The Little Sapling felt very puzzled and decided to ask the farmer about that the next time he would see him and so he did the next day. As a reply, he got another question instead: “Why do you mind? You’re not going there anyway.” Then the farmer refused to bring back the subject again despite all the Little Sapling’s efforts to convince him.

Thus, the curiosity in the Little Sapling’s sap heart grew deeper by the day until he could no longer control the restlessness inside and ended up, at last, bringing up the same subject again and again to the farmer’s ears until he finally blew up.

With all the impatience and viciousness exposed on his face, the famer threatened the Little Sapling, not minding to hide anymore his real character: “If I still hear you nagging me about this matter again, I’ll chop you off and turn you into a pile on fagots, only to feed the fire in the cold season.”

The Little Sapling wasn’t that afraid but he didn’t feel he would succeed on convincing the man anyway thus he agreed to take a step back, thinking bitterly that he didn’t have a say anyway. From that day onward, he slowly grew displeased with the unkind man who didn’t bother to hide his true thoughts anymore. At that time he started to feel some regret and thought for the first time about wanting to return home, but did dare voice it out.

Soon, his first bud appeared, which distracted him somewhat from his worries and he started watching forward to see it grow and mature into a red and full ripe fruit. Thus, the bud bloomed into a small white flower which then lost its petals and kept growing larger day by day.

The farmer too was eager to seal the deal they committed to and warned him repeatedly about making light of it and not respecting the terms of their agreement, going as far as to threaten him some more. The careless and reckless Sapling didn’t seem intimidated at all and wished a second time very hard to be freed from the clutches of the evil man and being able to return home, there where he could feel peaceful and happy.

He spent all day long badmouthing the farmer behind his back until one day some big bird was passing by and caught on some bribes of his complaints. While eying the big ripe fruit that was majestically hanging from the Little Sapling’s weak branch making it nearly bend and break, the big bird landed on the soil and agreed readily with its owner: “I’ve heard everything you said and I think you’re totally right. But how can you bear obediently handing over your most precious treasure after he had wronged you this much. You mustn’t stay here anymore.”

Seeing he was on his side, the Little Sapling opened up to him and felt desperate saying: “I have no way to escape-“

Suddenly his words came to an abrupt stop in his throat as he watched the meaningful smile on the bird’s expression and he felt his mood brighten up slightly as he asked cautiously, not wanting to get that much of false hope or being laughed at: “… Unless you have some means…”

The big bird quickly confirmed and then added: “But I have a small condition, I want to get that fruit in return. It would only burden you anyway. Moreover I can’t carry both you and this fruit while flying at the same time. You should give it to me so that I could hide it in a safe place before coming back for you. You can trust me, I’m a very reliable person.”

The Little Sapling didn’t hesitate for long before agreeing as the though he didn’t have a better option than placing all his hopes on some bird he had just met. On the other hand, he could not think of a reason why this big fellow would blatantly lie to him. The Naïve Little Sapling didn’t know at that time that there could exist such unreasonable people.

The bird carried the big fruit with it as it quickly disappeared in the far off distance and the Little Sapling waited there patiently.

He waited until the farmer came back again, directly discovered that the great reward he was waiting for was nowhere to be found, and he ultimately resolved to carry out his threat.

That’s how the Little Sapling got directly chopped off and turned into a pile of fagots, ready to feed the fire at any time.

That's how the Little Sapling learned not to trust so easlily, he had some regrets but it was already too late, because he would never be a sapling anymore. From him remained only a few ashes.