Every morning mother wakes me up and we go searching for food. She always smiles and cheers when I discover nuts so I am always on the lookout.
Yesterday morning turned out to be a special one. While skipping in the forest I suddenly heard something fall in the distance. I was curious so I went to see. I reach a clearing and in the middle stood a giant chestnut tree with probably a hundred chestnuts on the ground underneath.
I knew then that mother would be proud for making such a discovery but I wanted to celebrate first. Just before I put one of the chestnuts in my mouth, I hear her:
“Sebastian, stop!”
She wasn’t smiling or excited, but instead looked worried.
“Mom, look at all the chestnuts!”
“We have talked about chestnuts, have we not?”
”Yes we have.”
”And how does a good chestnut look like?”
”Well, it is brown and shiny, just like this one!”
”And what else?”
”Umh… it has a pointy tip?”
”Exactly. Do these have a pointy tip?”
“No. No they do not…”
”And what about the green shell of a good chestnut?”
”It has lots and lots of pointy needles, like a hedgehog!”
”And do these shells have a lot of pointy needles?”
”No, just a few small ones…”
”So then, what does that mean?”
”That these are the bad kind of chestnuts. The ones we do not eat.”
”That is correct. This is still a good discovery because of the lesson learned but remember that appearances can be deceiving.”
We did find a lot of nuts that day, but we didn’t eat the bad chestnuts.