The Big Watermelon

China is the top largest producer of watermelon. Our story’s setting is China.

Shen was an old watermelon farmer, who had a son. He has a big land where he grows only watermelons. The watermelons from his farm are big, juicy, and tasty. The watermelons are dark green outside and red fleshy inside.

None of the farmers could grow a big watermelon like Shen’s.

In China, there was a famous Watermelon Carnival. They conducted watermelon eating competition for kids with a condition. While eating the melons they should not bite or spit the seeds on the ground instead a bowl will be given to the participants to collect the seeds. The kid who collected most number of seeds will be given a prize.  

The farmers from the village and nearby brought their best watermelons to the carnival. Shen brought his big juicy fresh watermelons for the competition too.

Li wei won the prize for collecting 200 seeds in her bowl. Li wei approached Shen and asked  “Sir, what are you going to do with these seeds? It’s all waste that should be disposed in garbage”.

Shen replied “Child, we save these seeds and use it for our next plantation”. The child smiled and went with her parents.

Shen’s son observed that the watermelons from his father’s harvest were the best in the town. He planned for something big. He went to his father and said “Father, you are producing the best watermelons. Instead of wasting the good big melons for the competition, why don’t we send it to other towns and make more money out of it. Shen hesitated first but his son later convinced him to go by his idea.

During the next harvest, Shen’s son took all the best watermelon from the farm and sent it to the markets outside the town. And he gave the normal sized and the smaller watermelons for Watermelon carnival.  He earned huge money from selling watermelons in the big markets. He became rich and bought more farm lands to extend the watermelon plantation in his village.

After few years, he noticed that the size of watermelon became smaller and smaller. And the taste was not good as his father’s earlier harvest. Shen’s son felt very upset. He couldn’t find out what was the mistake and cannot match up with his father’s harvest.

He went to his father and asked him for the reason behind this. Shen explained “Son, my way of plantation started with the best seeds which I collected from the watermelon eating competition. Those seeds are like my big investment for my big profits. You have changed the whole process and now you get what you sow”.

Shen’s son realized his mistake and understood his father’s traditional way of plantation.

The same year he sent the big, best, juicy, fresh watermelons for the Watermelon Carnival.

Moral: Don’t become broke trying to become rich. Before changing something we should know and understand the value of work. If it’s a must to change, then go for it. Or else stick to the same and focus on different streams.