Once upon a time, there lived a young man who was looking to grow in his life. While exploring what business he would take to support his family, he met a very well-traveled man. The man told the young man great tales of his travel, and then he talked about a country that had no onions.
“No onions!” exclaimed the young man. In all his life, he had never heard of such a thing. “How can anyone enjoy the true pleasure of food without onions?”
Without any further thoughts, he bought onions, filled his cart and set his journey towards this whimsical land of no onions. Finally, after several days he arrived in the onion-less country. He made his way to the palace, where the guards were fascinated enough by the weird cargo that they allowed him to meet the king.
“I bring you a great gift from my country, the young man proudly announced. The plant is native to my place but new to yours. It has the unique ability to enhance the flavor of any food. It would be great if I could offer you this magnificent plant which you, in turn, introduce it to your people.”
The Emperor was a little cautious about letting the weird plant at first, but he later allowed the young man to prepare some delicacies using the onions.
The young man used all his culinary skills to prepare the feast using the onions. All the empire’s ministers, the nobility and senior officials were invited to the dinner that night. After the young man did the initial tasting, the feast commenced. Then, everyone in the room started eating the food.
It didn’t take long for the hall to lapse into a great noisy fit out f excitement. All praised the smell and the taste of the food.
The king thanked the young man profusely, demanded the entire batch of onions, and paid him its weight in gold.
On his journey back home, the young man met a trader. He shared his magnificent story about the country. For hours that night, the young man recounted the splendor and magnificence he had seen in that far-away land, where gold was worth less than onions. He also told the trader that he learned that the country did not have garlic. The trader was excited to learn that and thought he could replicate the young man’s success by introducing garlic to the country. “Garlic is infinitely more tasty and aromatic! If they were giving gold for onions there, he could expect diamonds for garlic.”, he thought.
The enterprising trader carried huge bags of garlic and took on the journey to the country without garlic, with the riches he was sure to receive jingling merrily in his mind. Since the introduction of the onions recently overjoyed the land, they were more open to the idea of trying his garlic. The royal guards took the man with the new herbs to the king.
The king asked him to prepare a feast using garlic. The trader was very excited and made several tasty dishes using garlic. The garlic received even more praises than the onions, as he had expected. The Emperor discussed with his ministers for a long time the reward for their noble guest who introduced them to the garlic. After some discussion, they all agreed that the gold was not enough for such delicious food. So they decided to reward him with the most precious thing they had to offer. What can be more precious than gold? Onions!
That night the trader returned home with bags full of onions.
