The Wise Farmer and the Hidden Treasure

The Wise Farmer and the Hidden Treasure

By Muhammad Maqbool Elahi

In a small village surrounded by golden fields and dusty paths, there lived a poor farmer. Every day, from sunrise to sunset, he worked tirelessly in his fields — plowing, sowing, and watering the crops with his bare hands. Yet, when harvest season came, his hard work was never rewarded.

The village chief, a greedy and powerful man, would arrive on horseback with his guards and seize almost all of the farmer’s crop. He would leave only a small share behind — barely enough for the farmer and his wife to survive the year.

The farmer’s life was filled with endless struggle, but he never gave up hope.

One afternoon, while digging in the corner of his field, his spade struck something hard. At first, he thought it was a rock, but when he dug deeper, he realized it was a small wooden chest buried beneath the soil. Curious and trembling, he pulled it out.

When he opened the chest, his eyes widened in disbelief. It was full of diamonds, pearls, and glittering jewels. The poor farmer stood frozen for a moment, then quickly looked around to make sure no one had seen him.

“If the village chief finds out,” he whispered to himself, “he’ll take it all away, just like he takes my crops.”

He carried the chest home secretly and showed it to his wife. Her eyes sparkled with joy.

“What should we do with this treasure?” he asked.

His wife thought for a moment and said, “Let’s bury it in the courtyard. No one will ever think to look there.”

The farmer agreed. That night, under the dim light of an oil lamp, they dug a small hole in the courtyard and buried the chest carefully.

Later, as his wife prepared to fetch water from the well, the farmer sat quietly, lost in thought.

He began to worry: “My wife is kind, but she talks too much. What if she tells her friends about the treasure? The secret will spread like wildfire, and soon the chief will know everything.”

Anxious, he stood up, dug up the chest again, and hid it in a secret place deep in the forest.

When his wife returned home, he said casually, “Tomorrow, we’ll go to the forest to catch fish.”

His wife looked at him in surprise. “Fish? In the forest? Have you lost your mind?”

The farmer smiled. “You’ll see tomorrow,” he said mysteriously.

Early the next morning, before his wife woke up, the farmer went to the market. He bought a large basket of fresh fish from a fisherman and some hot bread from a tandoor. Then he carried them to the forest.

There, he scattered the fish across a small clearing and hung the flatbreads from the branches of trees. Once his strange work was done, he quietly returned home.

When the sun rose, he woke his wife. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go catch fish in the forest.”

Still confused, she followed him.

When they reached the clearing, she gasped in astonishment. “Look!” she cried. “There are fish on the ground!”

She picked up the fish one by one, placing them in her basket. As they walked further, she looked up and froze again. “There are breads hanging from the trees!”

The farmer nodded wisely. “Yes,” he said, “sometimes it rains bread here, and the loaves get stuck in the branches.”

His wife was completely convinced. When they returned home, she couldn’t stop talking about the “miracle.” Soon, her story spread throughout the village — how fish swam on dry land and bread rained from the sky.

Word traveled fast, and it didn’t take long for the greedy chief to hear it. He immediately suspected that the farmer had found something valuable.

He summoned both the farmer and his wife to his mansion.

When the farmer arrived, the chief glared at him. “I’ve heard you found a chest full of jewels. Is that true?”

The farmer looked confused and said, “No, sir. That’s not true at all.”

“Don’t lie to me!” the chief thundered. “Your wife already told me everything!”

The farmer bowed his head respectfully. “Sir,” he said, “my poor wife has lost her senses. She’s been saying strange things lately. Just yesterday, she told me bread fell from the sky!”

The chief raised his eyebrows. When the farmer’s wife heard this, she became furious.

“It’s true!” she shouted. “I saw it with my own eyes. Fish were lying on the forest floor, and bread was hanging from trees! The chest was buried in our courtyard the day before it rained bread!”

The chief burst out laughing. “You’re right,” he said mockingly. “Your wife really has lost her mind.”

But one of his servants whispered something into his ear. The chief frowned and said, “Go and search the farmer’s courtyard. Dig every inch of it!”

The servants rushed to the farmer’s house and dug up the entire courtyard. They found nothing — no chest, no jewels, no trace of a treasure.

When they returned empty-handed, the chief grew suspicious but could say nothing. The farmer smiled inwardly, thankful for his cleverness.

Through his quick thinking, he had fooled both his talkative wife and the greedy chief. His secret treasure remained safe, buried deep where no one could find it.

From that day on, the farmer and his wife lived a quiet, prosperous life — free from hunger and free from fear.


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Moral: Wisdom and patience can protect what strength and wealth cannot.