The Traveling Debt

16/04/2025 4 min

Listen "The Traveling Debt"

Episode Synopsis

Two indebted brothers became highway robbers but eventually decided to reform and create a farm to pay off their debts. After planting corn, a bushfowl ate all their seeds, ruining their plans. Upon capturing the bird, they transferred their debt to it as punishment. The bushfowl laid eggs to sell and pay the debt, but a silk-cotton tree's branch fell and broke them, transferring the debt to the tree. The tree produced cotton to sell, but an elephant plucked it all down, inheriting the debt. A hunter shot the elephant and received the debt, then broke his leg on a tree stump, transferring the debt there. White ants ate the stump and accepted the debt, wisely working together to weave linen to sell. People mistake this ant-made linen for mushrooms when the ants lay it out to dry, gathering it for food and unknowingly continuing the cycle of transferred obligation.https://mythopia.io/story/953/how-mushrooms-first-grew