Once upon a time there lived a young girl with her grandmother. The two were very poor, having only enough to keep food on their plates and a roof over their heads. The only other thing they has was a very old bowl that had been passed down through generations of their family. As fate would have it, the bowl was actually very valuable, as, unbeknownst to them, it was made of solid gold.
One day a merchant was coming through town. The girl wanted to buy something very badly.
She asked her grandmother, “May we please but something from the merchant?”
The grandmother replied, “I’m so sorry, but we cannot as we have nothing to offer, but this old bowl.”
The little girl kept begging and so the grandmother went out and told the merchant their plight. She said all they had to offer was a very old bowl in exchange for something. The merchant was a very greedy man, and seeing that the bowl was made of gold decided that he wanted it for himself. Instead, though, he played a trick and told the little girl and her grandmother that the bowl was worthless and that he would not trade anything for it. He had decided for himself that he would come back later with something of worthless value and trade it for the bowl.
The next day, a different merchant came by and the little girl asked her grandmother again if she could get something. The grandmother told the little girl again, “We have nothing to offer except this old bowl.”
The little girl kept begging, though, and so the grandmother went out and offered the merchant the bowl. This merchant was a very kind merchant, and seeing that the bowl was gold told the little girl and her grandmother of its value. He said, “This bowl is worth more than everything in my cart. I cannot accept this because it would not be fair.” The little girl and her mother insisted, though, and gave the man the bowl in exchange for everything in his cart.
A few days, later, the greedy merchant came back hoping to get the bowl, but the little girl and her grandmother informed him that they had already given it away to another merchant. The greedy man was so angry, but he knew he had gotten what he deserved for his dishonesty.
On the other hand, the kind and generous merchant went to live on an island where he spent the rest of his days living off of the riches he had gotten from the bowl.
This image is exactly how picture the greedy merchant looking!
Bibliography: Jataka Tales "The Merchant of Seri" by Ellen C. Babbitt.
Lovely story! I remember the original from the Jakata Tales and I think you've done a splendid job here of capturing the characters and the story-line. I had similar thoughts about the grandmother giving away the object of such value but I think since they all were happy with their trade and the greedy merchant wasn't able to swindle his way into taking the object hat this satisfied enough. I love that you chose to include an image of what you thought the merchant looked like, especially since he is winking in that sinister way!
ReplyDeleteHi Piper!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job re-telling the story from the original Jataka, The Merchant of Siri. I also agree that it was silly to give away something so valuable like you and B have said, but I think at the same time maybe they had thought of it as worthless for so long that trading it for something less had more value in the trade. If that makes sense? The newness of the items they traded for meant more to them. Anyways, I really liked how you changed the story. Also, not sure if we are supposed to talk about paragraphs on the blogs too, but I think you did an excellent job splitting this up into easy to follow paragraphs that flowed well together. Great job!
Hi Piper! I think you did a really great job with your story this week.. I remember this story from the Jataka tales and loved seeing how you put your own creative twist on it.. I think you did a great job with he amount of detail you put into this story. I felt like I could really visualize what was happening.
ReplyDeleteHey Piper! I read a ton of Jataka tales because I think that the Jataka tales are entertaining, but I never read this one. I love how the Jataka tales almost always have a good moral to the story. I wonder why the grandmother and little girl sold the bowl to the merchant instead of to whoever the merchant sold the bowl to? This would've been interesting to see in a story that had an alternative ending. Overall, great story Piper!
ReplyDelete