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A Black Legend
There was a poor man and his son who lived alone. One day the man became very ill and knew he was dying.
"When I am buried," he told his son, "plant some pumpkin seeds on my grave." Then he died.
The grieving son did as he was told. The pumpkins grew. After some time one of them was ripe enough to eat. He took it from the vine and carried it home with difficulty, for it was heavy. When he cut the pumpkin, silver coins poured out. The son was astonished and joyful, but was not greedy. He never harvested a pumpkin until it was ripe. Each one proved to be full of silver coins, rewarding him for following the advice of his father. It was not long before the son was rich.
The sultan of the land heard about the son's wealth of silver coins. The greedy ruler sent his soldiers to take all the silver coins. There was nothing the son could do, except to keep the secret of the pumpkins.
As the silver coins were given to the sultan, they turned into snakes. The sultan was both frightened and angry. He decided to get revenge by sending the snakes back to be thrown into the son's house, in the hopes that he would be bitten by them. The snakes were gathered safely into baskets. As the baskets were opened and thrown into the son's house, the snakes became silver coins again.
No one else dared to try and rob the son again. He enjoyed the rest of his days in peace.
The End