Outstanding Stories » The Giving Tree

“The Giving Tree” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Sidhansh Garg, Lotus Valley International School, India.

The Giving Tree

Once upon a time in a small town, there were two groups of children. One group consisted of elder children and the other; younger children. The older children were very mean and always bullied the younger ones. They called them names and also made them do their work. They didn’t let them play in the same park as them. Whenever the younger children brought something to eat, the older children teased them, snatched their food and chased them away. The group of younger children was afraid to tell their parents about this constant bullying and teasing because they thought that they wouldn’t understand. Sometimes the older children were so loud that some children could not even study for their exams.

In their town park, there was a tree which was loved by everyone. Every summer, both the groups of children would pick delicious, juicy mangoes from the tree. Did I tell you that the mango tree could speak? Well, it could. However, no one knew about this secret of the tree. One fine day, the mango tree called all the children and asked them to stand around itself. The children were shocked as well as pleasantly surprised to hear the conversation of the mango tree. The tree said that it had decided to give all the children some delicious candies. This made the children very happy. When all the younger children opened their candies, luckily enough, they found all their favorite flavors. They were very delighted and excited.

However, when the older children opened their candies, they were shocked to find pebbles and stones inside them. They were very disappointed. They started shouting at the younger children again, and ran towards them to steal their candies. Suddenly, the tree shouted loudly and started scolding the older children. “STOP! This was your punishment. Bullying is wrong and unacceptable. You should always be nice to everyone around you, or else you will never achieve anything in life. I hope you understand this lesson. From now on, if you bully these younger children, you’ll never be able to have my mangoes.” After listening to the mango tree, the older children were ashamed, but they realized their mistake. They went up to the younger children and apologized to them. Thereafter, all the children happily played together every day.