The Serpent & The Pearl
One summer day, a farmer labored in his tired, dry fields. He worked the soil until there was no strength left in his arms before retreating to the shade of a nearby tree. The farmer knew his land was depleted and in serious need of nutrients to sustain his crops, but he was a poor man with little money to spare.
The farmer thought about his dilemma as he dozed in the shade, and somewhere between sleep and awake, a snake appeared. The man wasn’t alarmed, but instead, curious. He watched as the snake slithered between the neat rows of beans and wheat before disappearing into a small hole at the base of the tree.
Unable to stay awake for a moment longer, the man fell into a deep slumber. He dreamt of baskets overflowing with bright orange mustard seeds and tall, golden wheat dancing in the wind. And when he awoke, a voice hissed:
I am the guardian of your field and the surrounding land. If you desire healthy and abundant crops, make me an offering.
The very next morning, the farmer lay a bowl of milk and honey near the tree along with a prayer of gratitude for the serpent. At midday, he returned to the tree for his afternoon nap, and saw that the bowl of milk and honey was gone. In its place was a gold coin.
This exchange happened day after day, with the farmer leaving milk and honey for the snake, and the snake leaving gold coins as thanks. The farmer used the serpent’s money to buy a goat to fertilize his land and even hired his lazy son to help with the heavy workload.
But, one fateful morning, the farmer’s luck ran out. Since he was headed to the market to sell his latest harvest, the farmer asked his son to feed the serpent. Feeding the guardian of their land was an important part of their familial business, even if the son mocked his father’s superstitions. But the son agreed, and after his father left, he placed a bowl of honey and milk by the tree. At noon, he returned to gather the bowl and gazed in awe at the gold coin.
Just then – an idea.
Instead of wasting their milk and honey on the serpent, why not kill the serpent and steal its coins? The boy concluded that by killing the serpent, he would no longer have to work for his father; he could buy his own field, hire a kid to harvest the grain, and spend his days doing as he pleased.
With his mind made up, the boy pretended to be napping, just as his father did each day. When the snake emerged for his daily stroll through the rows, the boy pounced on the creature, trying to trap it beneath the bowl. But the snake was quicker than he. The serpent bit the boy on the arm, and within minutes, the farmer’s son was dead.
When the old man returned from the market and saw the boy, he knew right away what had happened. The next morning, he cremated his son, spread his ashes in the field, and then, as an apology to the serpent, left a bowl of milk and honey at the base of the tree.
But when the farmer sought the shade for his midday rest, the bowl of milk and honey was gone, but there was no gold coin. In its place was a single pearl.
The man sighed. Although the pearl was as beautiful as it was valuable, he understood that this would be the last gift from the serpent.
For you see, while gold symbolizes wealth and abundance, a pearl denotes knowledge, specifically, the knowledge received through our experiences. While the guardian of the field was not angry with the man, he would no longer bless and watch over his land.
The man decided not to sell the pearl (lest he be forced to learn this lesson again) and instead carried the pearl in his pocket for the rest of his days. Even though he continued to fill a bowl of milk and honey every morning, the farmer never saw the serpent again – not even in the fleeting moments between sleep and awake.
This story was inspired by and adapted from “The Gold-Giving Serpent” by Joseph Jacobs.
