Aesops Fable: The Plane Tree

The Plane Tree

Two Travellers, walking in the noonday sun, sought the shade of a widespreading tree to rest. As they lay looking up among the pleasant leaves, they saw that it was a Plane Tree.

"How useless is the Plane!" said one of them. "It bears no fruit whatever, and only serves to litter the ground with leaves."

"Ungrateful creatures!" said a voice from the Plane Tree. "You lie here in my cooling shade, and yet you say I am useless! Thus ungratefully, O Jupiter, do men receive their blessings!"

Our best blessings are often the least appreciated.

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StoryTime Idea:
We used this story to point out being grateful for things others do for us. Instead of two travellers we used three different animals travelling:
1. Racoon: hungry and tired, sought shade from the sun for his nap. Ungrateful for food the tree didn't have.
2. Bird: hungry and tired, sought a branch on which to perch and rest safe from wolves. Ungrateful for the food the tree didn't have.
3. Mouse: hungry and lost, sought to climb up high for a view from which to see his way home. Grateful for the view and never mentioned his dissapointment the tree didn't have food, but rather thanked the tree for it's tallness so he could find his way home.
THE TREE: shook and rumbled for the first to ingrates, but then welcomed the mouse into a hole in the tree to share some berries and nuts the tree had other animals store in him for grateful travellers.