Chickpea Boy

Once upon a time, in a village in Anatolia, there lived an old couple who had no children. One day, while the woman was cooking chickpeas on the stove, she sighed: "If only we had a child, even one as small as this chickpea." At that moment a chickpea jumped out of the pot, and the moment it touched the floor it turned into a tiny boy. "Mother!" he called.

The old couple did not know what to do with joy. They named the boy Chickpea Boy. Chickpea Boy never grew any bigger, but he was very hardworking and very clever.

One day his father went to the field. At noon his mother wondered, "Who will take your father his lunch?" "I will!" said Chickpea Boy. He put the lunch bundle on a donkey's back and sat himself in the donkey's ear. "Giddy-up, giddy-up!" he cried, and he drove the donkey all the way to the field. When his father saw the donkey arriving with his lunch, he was surprised, and then, when he heard the voice coming from its ear, he laughed.

"Father, you eat your lunch, and I'll plough the field," said Chickpea Boy. He climbed into the ox's ear: "Right! Left! Straight ahead!" The ox walked wherever his voice told it, and the field was ploughed perfectly.

Just then two thieves were passing along the road. When they saw an ox walking all by itself, they said, "Let's steal this ox!" They began to lead the ox away. But a voice came from the ox's ear: "Let go of my ox! Or I'll tell the judge!" The thieves looked around but saw nobody. "The ox is talking!" they shouted, and they ran for their lives. They never came anywhere near that village again.

When evening came, Chickpea Boy rode home in the ox's ear, singing, with his father walking beside him. His mother was waiting for them at the door.

Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told this tale, one for the one who listened, and one for tiny Chickpea Boy with his great big heart.