The farmer's son

                      

                     Patience is a virtue that many do not possess. Though many like to eat its fruit, few actually sow those seeds. This story is about one such young man.          

                   Once upon a time, there was a farmer. He was a hard-working fellow. He knew everything about farming, from ploughing the land to selling the grains. However, his haughty son knew only his father’s money. He knew that his father had earned so much money from the fields. And he decided to make money in the same way as his father. 

                  So, one day, he went to his father and asked him, “Father, give me a piece of land where I can cultivate crops.”

                 His father was pleasantly surprised, for his son had never been interested in farming until then. So he asked his son, “Are you interested in farming?” His son replied, “ I am interested in making money. And I see that you make a lot of money from the land. So I decided to try my hands on it.”

                  His father was deeply disappointed with what he heard. He never thought farming was a business for making money, but he regarded it as an art of bringing new life in every season. Moreover, he knew of his son’s haughty nature, which would not help him in the fields. So his father said to him, “ Dear son, I can’t give you an entire piece of land to cultivate now. I would like to see you grow something on a pot before you move to the fields.” The son did not expect such a reply from his father, but then he decided to prove himself to his father. So he agreed to his demand, for he thought, “Well, it’s just a small plant in a pot.”

                      His father handed him the soil mix, seeds and the pot and asked him to sow the seed and bring back a plant. 

                      The young man went home in the evening and did what he knew about planting seeds. He emptied the soil mix into the pot, planted the seeds into the soil, poured water into it and left it outside. On the next morning, he went out and looked at the pot. There was no sign of anything. He watered it again and waited another day. There was nothing on the next day also. He waited yet two more days, and still, there was nothing. Finally, on the fifth day, he lost all his patience. He went to his father and complained, “You have given me a seed that doesn’t grow.”

                        His father replied to him, “Son, I gave you a sunflower seed. It is one of the fastest-growing plants. It actually sprouts in seven days. If you had waited for two more days, you could have seen how magically life is formed in the dark soil and sprouts out into the light. Now your haughtiness has cost you the land you asked for. So why don’t you sow seeds of patience and grow them before you grow the crops.”   

                        His son felt crestfallen. He thought, “If only I had waited for two days things could have been different.” But he knew his father was right, he could not have waited. He was haughty, he wanted everything to happen then and there. He realized that his father had taught him a lesson that is more valuable than money. And began to mend his ways. And you might be surprised that he too turned out to be a successful farmer just like his father.