"I will give you a thousand dollars," bartered the traveller.

"See here, amigo," said Pedro de Urdemalas, "I am badly in need of money, otherwise I would not think of disposing of such as rare pot. It is a bargain, but we will have to take care lest it discovers the change in masters and refuses to boil. Sit down very quietly and give me the money. Don ‘t speak or move until I am out of hearing"

It was with the utmost caution that the trade was made. The stranger, almost afraid to breathe, sat by the boiling pot and Pedro tiptoed away. After an hour of patient watching the new owner of the magic vessel noticed that the beans and water were not boiling. He picked up the pot and immediately realized that he had been skinned. At first he swore revenge, but after a second thought he was so humiliated by his gullibility that he was glad to forget about it.

It was late in the afternoon when Pedro de Urdemalas decided it would be safe to rest his weary legs. Tired out by the haste with which he left his last victim, he sat beneath a mesquite not far from the road and wondered how he might add another thousand dollars to his ill-gotten gain. Presently, he began by boring holes in the coins he carried, and, when this was done, he hung them to the branches of the tree in such a manner that it appeared to have grown there.

The following morning two wagon masters on their way up the road were amazed by what they saw. They went to the mesquite and were at the point of plucking the rare fruit when Pedro saw them.