The Golden Watermelons: An Uzbek Fairy Tale in Bloomington, MN

"The Golden Watermelons" is an old Uzbek fairy tale. This illustrated story shows how the good deeds of ordinary people are rewarded. There is a poor Uzbek farmer who helps an injured stork and then that stork gives him magic watermelon seeds that grow watermelons with gold inside. His neighbor is a rich farmer who hurts a stork and helps it. He gets seeds that produce watermelons full of wasps. A once-poor farmer who had shown kindness, compassion, and mercy was provided with prosperity and a good life. The story of the rich farmer who was unkind, and who wanted a profit for himself in everything, ends very sadly.