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THE PARABLE OF THE TOMATO There was a red tomato tree. A boy ate a red tomato He took some tomatoes to the village He said, "Come, this fruit is good. "The people ate the red tomatoes. The leader of the village saw this, and said, "What do you eat?" "Red fruit. It is delicious."But the leader was not happy Because the leader told people what to eat. "We must always eat apples. Only apples." At night, the leader painted all tomatoes blue In the morning he said to his people, "See! These fruits turn blue. They are poison. All who have eaten of this poison are foolish! From this day on, only apples are good." He made the people throw out all the tomatoes. The red tomato trees were burned. The people listened to the leader. Many years later, pictures of blue tomatoes Were in everyone's homes to remind them to beware of poison and to trust the leader. The villagers had forgotten about red tomatoes. The boy, now a man, one day walked along that old path and found a tomatoe tree On the tree were red tomatoes. At first, he wanted to chop down the tree Then, being wiser, he picked a red tomato And took it home, not showing anyone. The next day, he looked for the red tomato But couldn't find it; his son was eating it. Quickly the man knocked the eaten red tomato to the floor, "It's poison!" Suddenly, he realized that the tomato was still red, and not blue like before. "These tomatoes are not poison," he said to himself. "They taste very yummy, father," said his son. Upon seeing the picture of a blue tomato on the wall he remembered that day when leader told everyone that these fruits were poisonous. In fact, these fruits were good. The man thought, "If the fruit is good and not poisonous, then it must be that leader is poisonous and not good." ~ Talessian |
