The Travellers and the Plane Tree
- 2 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Aesop's Fables
Two travellers were walking a long road at the hottest part of a summer day.
The sun was directly overhead and there was no shelter anywhere. Their throats were dry and their feet hurt and they had stopped talking to each other some miles back.
Then they saw a plane tree standing alone at the roadside, wide and old, throwing a great pool of shade across the ground.
They went straight to it and lay down flat on their backs underneath.
Ungrateful
After a while, when they were cool enough to speak again, one of them looked up into the branches.
"What a useless tree this is," he said.
"How so?"
"It has no fruit. Nothing you can eat, nothing you can pick and sell. It just stands here taking up space at the side of a road. What is the point of a tree that gives nothing to anybody?"
And the tree, which had been listening, answered them.
"You ungrateful pair. You are lying in my shade at this very moment, cooling off in the only shelter for three miles, and while you do it you tell each other I am good for nothing."
Moral of the story
People overlook the help they are receiving while they are receiving it. What is doing the most for you is often the thing you have stopped noticing.
Questions and answers
- Why did the travellers stop at the tree?
It was the hottest part of the day, there was no shelter anywhere, and the tree cast a wide pool of shade.
- What did one traveller say about the tree?
That it was useless because it produced no fruit and gave nothing to anybody.
- Why was this unfair?
They were lying in its shade as they said it, sheltering from the only shade for three miles.
- What did the tree reply?
That they were ungrateful, since they were enjoying its shelter at the very moment they called it worthless.
- What does this fable say about noticing help?
That people stop seeing a benefit once they are comfortable inside it, and judge things only by what they can take away.
Word meanings
- plane tree
- A large tree with broad leaves, common in hot countries and often planted for shade.
- shelter
- A place giving protection from sun, rain or wind.
- ungrateful
- Not showing thanks for something you have received.
- overlook
- To fail to notice something.
Questions about The Travellers and the Plane Tree
What is the moral of The Travellers and the Plane Tree?
The moral is that people fail to value what is helping them, especially once they are comfortable. Usefulness is not only about what a thing produces.
What is a plane tree?
A large broad-leaved tree planted along roads and in city squares across southern Europe and Asia, valued mainly for the shade it gives.
Why does the tree speak?
Fables give voices to animals and objects so they can answer back. The tree's reply is what turns an observation into a lesson.
How can children apply this?
It is a good way into talking about people whose help is easy to miss, such as those who cook, clean or drive for them every day.