Khmer Folk Tale: 5- The Basket-Making Man (Part I)

There was once a poor man who lived by making baskets and selling them. One day, the climbed up a plan tree near his house. Getting up on the top of the tree, he cut off some palm leaves and began to make baskets with them. No sooner had he started his work than he began to dream of a bright future. He thought, "When I have made a lot of baskets, I shall take them to the market. After selling them, I shall get one riel. With this money, I shall buy a chicken. Gradually it will grow into a hen. And in the course of time the hen will lay a number of eggs, the eggs will soon be hatched. I shall then have a broad of chickens. When these grow bigger, I shall sell them. From these chickens, I shall surely get five riels, with this money, I shall buy a pig-baby. When the Pig-baby grows older, I shall sell it and have ten riels, for it. Now, I have sufficient money to buy a calt and a colt to raise. Then, as they will be big enough I shall sell both of them and I shall then have one or two hundred riels. Ah, how happy I shall be with such a large amount of money! But to make this amount of money even larger, I have to buy farms and fields and land in a village where I shall built a large house to live in. In the farms and fields I shall grow rice and fruit trees. The yearly production coming from these will make me a happy rich man with an annual income of four or five hundred riels. What shall I do next? Oh, I see! I shall have a wife....................

to be continued....