Ancient Story: The Story of Wheat

When I was little, my mom often told us a story about wheat to teach us to treasure food. My mom often told us, “Wasting food is against the principle of the universe.”
Here is the story that my mom used to tell:

“Once upon a time, there were five ears of wheat on each wheat stem. A god interested in checking on humankind’s life turned himself into a beggar and descended to the human world. He went to the front door of a family, and begged the host for food. The hostess was making pancakes at the time. When the hostess saw the beggar asking for food, she immediately hid the pancakes under the buttocks of her child who was playing in the kitchen, and drove the beggar away. The god saw that it was so easy for man to get food that they didn’t treasure food at all, so he ordered the wheat to grow only one ear on each wheat stem. Since then, man must earn wheat with hard work.”

Chinese version available from
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/4/3/9598.html