The Farmer and the Buried Treasure

An affectionate father came up with an imaginative way to get his sons to work on the farm.

Traditional ploughing on the island of Santorini in Greece.

Introduction

A FARMER who lay upon his deathbed wanted his sons to be able to take good care of themselves and the family vineyard after he was gone. But they had managed to avoid getting any hands-on experience of farming.

So he told them to gather round, and with his last breath whispered to them that there was a great treasure buried on his land.

They raced out into the fields, armed with ploughs and mattocks, and spent months clearing away stones and bushes and turning over every inch of cold, hard ground.

On the downside, they never did find any treasure. On the upside, lusty vines sprang up everywhere, and that summer the grape harvest was better than ever before. And that is how they learnt that a man’s greatest treasure is hard work.

based on a fable by Aesop of Samos

Based on Aesop’s Fables as collected in the 1920s by French translator Émile Chambry.

Précis

A dying farmer, wanting his idle sons to learn a trade, told them that there was treasure buried somewhere in their vineyard. Of course there was no treasure, but they dug the vineyard so beautifully that the harvest made their fortune. Then they realised that the ‘treasure’ their father had sent them to look for was honest labour.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Why was the farmer worried about his sons?

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