One boy got used to stealing apples from the garden of an elderly man. But he was so cowardly that he was doing it this way: climbed to the apple tree, took one or two apples, went down and instantly ran away.
One morning there was raining; it stopped after midday. The elderly man went out to breathe the fresh air and suddenly noticed a boy at his apple tree. The boy was about to steal the biggest and nicest apple from the tree. The man shouted and ran to the tree but stumbled and fell down into a puddle. The boy got off the tree, laughed and ran away.
The elderly man got up, shook himself and looked at his garden. There were just a few apple trees of two sorts: the first one was sour, good to use for making juice or jam, and the other one was very sweet and tasty. Apple trees of the first sort were closer to the house while the others were closer to the hedge. That's why the little thief stole only sweet apples.
The man thought to teach the boy a lesson. He looked in windows every day. He hadn't seen the boy for a while, but he appeared in the garden on eighth day. The elderly man went outside, silently approached the apple tree and caught the boy when he was climbing down. The man led him to his house. The boy was trembling because of fear; he had no idea what the man would do to him.
The elderly man said, "I have a lot of apples, and I'll give you some."
He gave so many apples that the boy couldn't hold at least half of them in his arms. He put all apples in his t-shirt and was about to go, but the man asked him to wait. He found his walking stick and saw the boy off to the hedge door. The boy began running but the man cunningly put his stick under the boy's legs. The boy fell down, and apples rolled every which way. The boy had to crawl on the dirty ground to pick apples. Had collected all of them, the boy ran home.
When came there, he quickly opened the door and went inside. There was no one home. The boy put apples on a table, washed one of them and bit… And felt like the earth had almost gone from under his feet: that much this apple was sour! Though before apples were sweet.
The boy spat apple and said to himself, "These apples turned bad; it must be my punishment for offending the elderly man and laughing at him."
In fact, the elderly man gave the boy apples of sour sort instead of tasty ones.
April 13 2015