Page 74 - Moral Stories Vol 5

Along time ago in a village in China, there lived a young man named Shen who inherited from his parents an old hut with a modest1 garden. There, he grew vegetables which he sold at the market - except that he gave away more than he sold, for no sooner did Shen see a poor man than he would feed him, no sooner did he see a hungry child than he gave away a handful of sweet corn. Shen always worked diligently and nowhere did any vegetables ever grow better than in his garden but he gave away so many to the needy people of the surrounding villages that often there was not enough left for him to live on until the next harvest. One time he was left with nothing but a single bitter red pepper.
Normally Shen added a few bits of hot pepper to his boiled rice to make it a little more appetizing but this time there was not a single grain of rice left in the whole house.
“Well little red pepper, if you were sweet I could have you for my dinner” said Shen. “But you are too bitter, my friend.” Shen put the red pepper in his pocket and set off to look for work in the hope of somehow feeding himself until the springtime.
Soon young Shen found work with a rich man who agreed to pay him with a sack of rice for his labors. He had to work very hard and the rich man fed him poorly. More than once his stomach growled from hunger. One night he was so hungry that he couldn’t sleep. He fingered the pepper in his pocket and dreamed of going home and raising vegetables in his own garden.
Suddenly the little pepper spoke up. “Listen to me, Shen, when you’re having your dinner tomorrow, pinch off a tiny piece of me and mix it with the handful of rice they give you.”
The young man thought he must be imagining things but even so the next day he remembered the pepper’s advice and added a little bit of
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