"Eit, eit!" he shouted. "Leave my tree alone."

They asked the name of the tree.

"This is the only one in existence," said Pedro de Urdemalas. "It bears twice a year and it is time to gather this season's crop."

"How much do you want for this plant?" they asked.

"Don’t insult me," said Pedro. "Why should I want to sell a tree like this? It would be foolish."

"We can pay your price," they insisted. "Besides, it isn‘t our intention to leave here before you agree to sell."

"Oh, well," said Pedro, "give me a thousand dollars for the present crop and the bargain is closed."

They agreed. Pedro gathered the coins from the tree, collected the purchase money and left for parts unknown.

The wagon masters built homes near the mesquite, pruned it, watered it, and did all their power to aid in a rich crop of coins the following season.

It being only a mesquite, their reward was mesquite beans.

These poor fools, like the others, had been beaten, but were thankful to have come off no worse.

Pedro, in the meantime, was, as an old corrido says, "seimpre cam inando," always travelling.

From “A Pack Load of Mexican Tales,” by Riely Aiken in Publications of the Texas Folklore Society 12 (1935): 49-52.