The Candy Man
Two brothers lived in the mountains of Tibet. When their parents died, the older brother inherited everything. The younger son inherited nothing.
The older brother was rich. He had more money than he needed. But, he was not happy. He took the money his parents had left him and lent it out at high interest. He made more money. Yet, the older brother was never happy. He wanted more money and more of everything. He was very greedy.
The younger brother had no money left to him. Yet, he always wore a smile on his face. Every day he went door to door asking for work. He did every job given to him. He never grumbled about anything. He even spoke kindly about his older brother.
One day the younger brother was given the job of carrying heavy buckets of sap from trees on a hill where it was collected to fires at the bottom of the hill. There it was cooked and turned into sticky sweet syrup and candy. On one trip, the younger brother slipped and fell. He went over and over as he fell down the hill, tipping buckets of sticky candy-like syrup all over his body. Down and down he fell until he rolled to a stop... surrounded by goblins.
"A Candy Man!" shouted the goblins. Goblins love to eat candy. "We have a Candy Man to eat." The goblins picked up the younger brother and carried him back to their hidden cave in the mountain.
Some goblins wanted to eat their Candy Man right away. But the King of the goblins stopped them. "This is not our way," said the Goblin King. He beat on a magic drum. Food appeared on a table in the middle of the room. The goblins noses grew longer, so they could smell the foods. The goblins tore into meats, breads and cakes with the single tooth that each had in their mouth. The food that smelled more delicious than anything the younger brother had ever smelled before.
The Goblin King beat on the drum again. "To the creek!" shouted the King of ther Goblins. "Then we eat our Candy Man." The goblins ran out of the cave leaving the younger brother alone.
He had remained quiet so the goblins would not eat him. Now he jumped up and grabbed the magic drum. He ran out of the cave and found his way home. At home, the younger brother beat on the drum. He had food to eat and food to sell. Soon he had money of his own and was able to buy a house as big as his older brother's.
It did not take long for the older brother to head about his brother's good fortune. "You must tell me how you became as wealthy as me," begged the older brother. The kind younger brother told him the entire story.
The older brother ran to the top of the same hill carrying large buckets of sticky syrup. He poured syrup all over himself and threw himself down the hill. "Look, look, our Candy Man has come back, said the goblins. They took the older brother back to their cave. He stayed quiet, waiting for his chance to grab a magic drum of his own.
"The last time our Candy Man ran away before we could eat him. Let us melt him and drink his sweet flavor before we have our dinner." The goblins put the older brother into a giant pot and put on the lid. They lit a fire under the pot. The older brother threw off the lid and jumped out of the pot.
"This is not our Candy Man," said the goblins. "This is a common thief." The Goblin King beat on his new magic drum - then pulled on the older brother's nose. The nose grew and grew until it was seven feet long. Then they began to pinch him all over. Goblins love to pinch! The older brother swung his nose around like a whip. He knocked the goblins down and ran out of the cave.
"Let me in," the older brother said as he ran up to his own door. His wife opened the door just in time to watch her husband trip over his nose and roll into the house.
"This is your fault," the older brother's wife told the younger brother. If you had not told my greedy husband how you became wealthy, his nose would not be seven feet long right now.
The younger brother knew it was his brother's greed that caused his nose to grow. Still, he loved his brother and promised to try and find a way to fid his brother's nose.
The younger brother went back to the goblin's cave. He waited until he saw them leave the cave and went inside to hide. "It was fun giving that thief the long nose. It's too bad he does not know that all he has to do is beat the magic drum and say 'shrink nose' to make his nose normal again."
That was what the younger brother needed to hear. When the goblins left the cave, the younger brother ran home to get the magic drum.
"Shrink nose!" said the younger brother, and he beat on the drum. The nose shrank about two inches. He repeated his actions, and the nose shrank again. He did this time after time until his brother's nose was only about three feet long.
"Give me that drum!" yelled the wife. Her husband's nose was not shrinking fast enough to make her happy. "SHRINK NOSE!!!" she shouted. Then she pounded hard on the drum. The entire three feet of nose snapped back and hit the older brother in the face. The nose bent inwards instead of sticking out.
To this day the older brother has no nose. He finally has something to be unhappy about. He learned what the people of Tibet say is true, "The greedy will be punished."