Once upon a time, on the outskirts of a distant village, in a small stone house, lived a kind, generous old gardener all by himself. One day, a tiny, pitch-black seed fell into the gardener's palm. He looked at the seed and said to himself: "What good would it do if I kept it in my pocket? I'll entrust it to the soil, let it feel the sun's breath." He planted the seed in the sunniest corner of his yard and gently covered it. Every morning he would come early to water it, and every evening he would whisper kind words to it.
Before long, the seed sprouted, and a green shoot emerged from the soil. The gardener clapped his hands with joy and continued his work with a smile. As days passed, the shoot grew into a stalk, and the stalk transformed into a giant sunflower stem. This was such a sunflower that its leaves were bigger than a house, and its stem stretched towards the sky.
One morning, the gardener put his ladder on his shoulder and said, "I'll go and check on my flower," then began to climb. He climbed and climbed, finally reaching among the clouds. There, in the shadow of the sunflower's giant petals, he saw two butterflies – one golden, the other silver – arguing angrily.
"Stop, why are you so angry?" asked the gardener.
The golden butterfly said: "I am Day."
And the silver butterfly said: "And I am Night."
Then both of them asked the gardener at once: "Tell us, which of us is more important?"
The gardener smiled and replied: "Both of you are irreplaceable. If there were no Day, people couldn't work and earn their bread. If there were no Night, bodies wouldn't rest, and stars wouldn't be seen. Both of you have your own time, your own beauty."
The butterflies were very pleased with this wise answer. Each of them offered the gardener a small bag and flew away, flapping their wings. The gardener put the bags in his satchel and carefully climbed down. When he entered his house and opened the bags, he couldn't believe his eyes: one contained honey-yellow pearls, and the other, shimmering silver stones. From that day on, the old gardener continued to live in abundance, yet remained unchanged, with his simple heart.
However, the gardener had a greedy, stubborn neighbor. When he heard about the gardener's sudden wealth, he was consumed by envy. As soon as he learned everything, he took his own ladder and also began to climb the sunflower. As he climbed, he broke petals, tore leaves, and forcefully reached the top, where he saw the arguing butterflies.
"How long have you been making such a racket, disturbing my peace!" he shouted.
The butterflies asked him the same question:
"I am Day."
"And I am Night."
"Which of us is more important?"
The neighbor replied insultingly: "I detest both of you. During the day, I have to work and I sweat. At night, I can't sleep, and I'm afraid of the dark. There's no need for either of you."
The butterflies looked at each other and fell silent. Then they each offered him a bag and flew away. The neighbor was almost falling over with joy. He grabbed the bags and ran home in one breath, closing the door and hurrying to open them.
But as soon as one of the bags opened, a dazzling light filled the room, shining so brightly it almost blinded him. From the other bag, pitch-black darkness spread, making nothing visible. The neighbor, disoriented by the light and the darkness, ran outside screaming. He finally understood that both day and night had their own value. From that day on, he was never ungrateful for anything.
The old gardener, however, spent his life telling tales to the village children in the shade of his sunflower, appreciating every moment of nature.
Three stars fell from the sky: one on the head of the storyteller, one on the heads of those who listened, and one on the heads of those who understood that everything is beautiful in its own time...
Sweet dreams, pleasant dreams!
