In Search of a Treasure۔۔۔🙂!

In a small village in Mexico, there lived a boy named Pedro. He was very poor. He had no shoes, his clothes were torn, and he often had only a loaf of bread to eat. But Pedro had one wealth: his mother’s love.

Pedro’s mother was very old. Her eyes were weak, her hands trembled, but she baked bread for Pedro every day, placed her hand on his head, and said: “Son, never give up.”

One day Pedro said to his mother: “Mom, I’m going to the city. There you will find work, you will find money. I will bring you medicine, I will give you nice clothes.”

The mother said: “Go, son, but remember, no matter what, to be honest.”

Pedro arrived in the city. He worked hard, from morning to night. He broke stones, carried goods, and cleaned the streets. But he received very little money.

One day he was very tired. He sat down under a tree and his eyes were closed.

He had a dream.

In the dream an old man came to him. He said: “Pedro, you work very hard, but you get nothing. Why? Because you work hard where no one is looking. Go, go to the other side of that mountain. There is an old church. Behind that church is a tree. Under that tree is buried treasure.”

Pedro’s eyes opened. He jumped up. He thought: “Treasure! I will be rich! I will bring mother’s medicine!”

He walked to the other side of the mountain.

He walked and walked. It took many days. Finally he found the old church. The church was in ruins, the walls were falling down, the doors were broken.

He went behind the church and saw a huge tree. He started digging under the tree.

He kept digging, digging. Evening came, night came, morning came. He dug the hole very deep. But he found nothing. No gold, no silver, no diamonds.

He sat down in the hole, exhausted. There were tears in his eyes.

Meanwhile, the old man came back, not in a dream, but in reality. The old man was standing next to him.

Pedro said: “You lied to me. There is no treasure here.”

The old man said: “There is treasure, Pedro. But you did not recognize it.”

The old man sat down next to him. He said: “Pedro, what did you see when you were digging?”

Pedro said: “Soil, stones, roots, worms.”

The old man said: “Nothing else?”

Pedro thought. Then he said: “Yes, once I found an old coin, but it was rusty. I threw it away.”

The old man said: “Why did you throw that coin away?”

Pedro said: “It was useless.”

The old man laughed. “Pedro, that coin was fifty years old. It would have sold for thousands today. You threw away the treasure.”

Pedro sighed.

The old man said: “But that’s not your real mistake. Your real mistake is that you spent all your time looking for the treasure. You ignored everything you saw along the way.”

Pedro asked: “What do you mean?”

The old man said: “On your way here, you saw a garden. There were fruits hanging there. You didn’t pick them and eat them. You saw a river. There were fish in it. You didn’t catch them and eat them. You saw a village. There were people asking for work. You didn’t stop. You just kept walking — after the treasure.”

Pedro remained silent.

The old man said: “Pedro, treasure is not something you find on the ground. Treasure is what you recognize along the way. Fruit is treasure, fish is treasure, work is treasure. You threw it all away.”

Pedro bowed his head.

The old man said: “Now go. Go back. This time, recognize what you find on the way.”

Pedro went back.

He picked and ate the fruit. He caught and ate the fish. He stopped in the village and worked. When he got home, he had money in his pocket, food in his stomach, and peace in his heart.

Mother asked: “Did you find the treasure?”

Pedro said: “Yes, mother, I found it.”

He took the money out of his pocket. “Take this, mother, and take the medicine.”

Mother said: “These are very few.”

Pedro said: “Mom, I have learned. In the pursuit of finding the treasure, I threw away the blessings of the road. Now I will consider every day as a treasure.”

Mother smiled. “Now you understand.”

Moral lesson:

This story teaches us three big lessons:

1. Treasure is not far away, it is close. We often run after big things and ignore small blessings.
2. The path is the destination. Recognize what you find along the way. Fruit, water, work, people, all these are treasures.
3. Hard work is never wasted. Pedro did not find treasure in the ground, but what he learned along the way was the greatest treasure.

Reference:

This story is from a Mexican folktale. It is called “El Sueño de Pedro” (Pedro’s Dream).

Dreams are given special importance in Mexican culture. This story tells us that dreams show us the way, but the real treasure is hidden along the way.