Country
Spain

Tale typology
Intercultural traditions

Age Suitability
5

Tale summary
A wealthy merchant tired of his lazy son give a very difficult challenge to him: with a coin he must buy something that it provides something to eat, something to drink, something to chew upon, something to plant in the garden, and some food for the cow. He manages to successfully complete the task with the help of a girl from the village.

Educational potential / Learning Outcomes
The story help the children to learn about creativity and be solution oriented instead of focusing only on the problem.
The pupils learn how to identify problems or challenges; Think of ways to solve the problem (brainstorm, creative thinking, generate ideas) and to test their ideas

Full Plot
There lived in the valley a very wealthy merchant who was not at all happy with his only son. The boy showed no signs of intelligence or creativity, much less any willingness to work. His mother always thought the best of him, however, and was constantly making excuses for him.
When the lad reached the age to marry, his mother begged the merchant to seek a proper wife for him. The merchant, however, was too much ashamed of his lazy son, and in his own mind had fully decided never to have him married. But the mother had set her heart on this. It was the one thing that she had been looking forward to for years. To have her son remain a bachelor all his life would be unthinkable. She simply would not agree to this for a moment.
And so she urged excuses for her son. She claimed to have now and again noticed extraordinary qualities of wisdom and intelligence in him. Her speaking in this way only annoyed the merchant.
"Look here," the merchant said to his wife one day, when she had been praising her son, "I have heard this many times before, but you have never once proved it. I do not believe there is a particle of truth in anything that you say. Mothers are blind. However, to satisfy you, I will give the fool another chance. Send for him, and give him this one one small coin, this paisa. Tell him to go to the bazaar, and with this one paisa to buy one item. That one item must be something to eat, something to drink, something to chew on, something to plant in the garden, and some food for the cow."
The mother told the boy those instructions, gave him the paisa, and the boy left.
When he came to the river, he became alarmed and wondered, "What can be bought for only one pàisa -- to eat and drink and do all the other things my mother asks for? Surely this is an impossible task!"
At that moment the daughter of an ironsmith came up. Seeing the lad's unhappy expression, she asked him what was the matter. He told everything his mother had ordered him to do.
"I know what you can do," she said.
What will the girl Suggest?
"Go and buy a watermelon with one paisa," said the girl. "It provides something to eat, something to drink, something to chew upon, something to plant in the garden, and some food for the cow. Give it to your parents, and they will be pleased."
And so this is exactly what the boy did.
When the merchant's wife saw the cleverness of her son she was very glad. "Look," she said to her husband as soon as he came home, "this is our son's work." "Actually, mother," said the boy, "the daughter of an ironsmith advised me to do this."
Nevertheless, the father was impressed that the lad had found such a fine solution. And so they invited the family of the ironsmith to their house for dinner. Both parents were pleased to see love bloom between the two young people. And so the daughter of the ironsmith married the merchant's son, and the lad became a hard-working young husband, and they all lived happily ever after.

One Lesson Plan
PROCEDURAL INSTRUCTIONS
Introduction Activity: The teacher play the audio book All for a paisa and at the end ask the participants: Question 1: Why would the father send the boy to the bazaar with such a difficult task Question 2: Are there any other possible solutions to the riddle?
Main Activity:
Share with the children that creativity is “thinking about a situation, a task, or an idea in a new way”.
Creativity means finding a new or different way to view a situation or accomplish a task. Often a new idea combines different parts of already existing ideas into something new. For example, a baking recipe may have a few of the same ingredients in both cookies and bread but when you combine those ingredients with a few other different ingredients, you get different results. A creative person looks for different and better ways to make or accomplish good things. Give the children the opportunity when they have done something creative or somebody close.
You can have a class commitment with 5 golden rules that you can discuss and agree with the kids individually. You can even create together a poster with these rules and the kids can color their finger and let a fingerprint as signature.
Rule 1: Use my talents for good.
Rule 2: See things from more than one perspective.
Rule 3: Use principles to make decisions and solve problems.
Rule 4: Learn all I can.
Rule 5: Look for new ways to do things.
Afterwards, introduce to the kids the Tangram, a Chinese puzzle. Prepare in advance many colorful tangrams and cut the pieces. Each participant should receive his/her own pieces of tangram. Tangram is a problem solving game used to enhance Math skills and consists of seven shapes. The Tangram – a parallelogram, a square, and five triangles – is used to make other shapes and forms.
To play the game you’ll need a few Tangram puzzle boards. I usually print out free Tangram puzzle boards off the internet. The children has to figure out how to perfectly fill in the form using the shapes previously prepared by you.
You can start off with puzzle boards that have the shape outline traced within the form.
As the children gets the hang of it, you can take it up a notch with puzzle boards that are just a form.
It takes real brain sweat to figure out how to fill out some puzzles. Letting your problem solver struggle a little will build up them perseverance, making her a grittier kid.