Once long long ago there was an apple tree with beautiful long branches and provided a beautiful shady spot for picnickers animals and children. One day a little boy came and sat under the tree. He began coming daily to rest under the tree. The tree and the little boy became good friends.
The tree began looking forward to the visits by the little boy. But soon the little boy grew up and began to go to school and did not have time to sit under the tree. The tree was lonely. So when the boy came again, it began sparkling and gurgling, but the little boy was sad. The tree asked him why are you so sad?
The boy cried out that all his friends had toys and he had no money to buy toys. The tree said to him “I have many apples cut some of them and sell them and you will be able to buy a toy too.” The little boy cheered up and began to cut the apples wildly not caring whether he was hurting the tree. He cut all the apples and dropped the flowers and damaged the branches. The tree could not bear apples again. Indeed after selling the apples he was able to buy toys for himself and was once again cheerful. But the tree was lonely and sad as it was unable to grow any apples. The boy did not return to it.
The boy grew up into a man. One day he returned to the tree in a depressed mood. The tree was happy to see him. But wondered why the man was so sad. The man responded “I am in love and want to marry but do not have money to buy a house” The tree said, “cheer up buddy I have many branches and you can cut some and build your house with it.”
The man was happy and began to cut down the tree, wildly. He hacked away until only a small part of the trunk was left. He built a beautiful house and was soon married and living happily with his wife. The tree was finding it difficult to grow again as the man had cut off too much and damaged the trunk. But it struggled along painfully until some branches began to grow.
The man grew old. One day he came to the tree with his young son and pointed out to him where he had obtained the beautiful wood with which he had built their house. It was cold and they needed wood to build a fire to keep them warm. So the father and son began to chop off the new branches and the tree was back to its roots struggling to survive. The tree groaned. But no one cared. It let out a sigh and died. Still no one cared.
Then the son grew into a young man and wanted to build a house. He came to the tree to look for wood but was surprised to find only a rotten heap.