Week 11 Story: The Greedy Man and the Rock

Photo by The Airdeez

There once was a traveling man that had a lot of greed in his heart. He had no problem taking valuables from innocents and fooling people into giving him everything he wanted. 

The man had spent an entire day taking treasures from the locals and went on his way traveling towards the next village. The man became tired from all his sealing and thievery so he decided to rest on a rock for a few hours. Before he fell asleep he decided to count out all the things he had stolen and mock the people who were stupid enough to fall for his little tricks. The rock heard every word the man said and became very angry. The rock had lived on the hill above the small town the man had stolen from for centuries and he was familiar with the people.

While the man slept, the rock decided he couldn't let the man get away with the horrible things he's done. He decided to wait until the morning to take action. 

When the man woke, he collected his things and started walking down the hill. Immediately the rock sprung into action rolling down the hill after him. The man heard rumbling behind him and when he turned, he saw the rock he had just been sleeping on plummeting down the hill right towards him. The man immediately turned to run having to drop all his newly stolen treasures to run faster. As he ran little creatures started to come out of hiding, stepping into his path. A fox ran in front of him but the man jumped over the creature before he could stumble and fall. The rock was gaining on him now and he could hear its pursuit. Out of nowhere a flock of birds rained down and flew right towards the man's head. Instinctively the man ducked, and when he did he lost his balance and tripped, falling face first.

The rock was right behind him and when the man fell, the rock rolled right over him, crushing his body. The man died instantly. The rock finally stopped rolling at the bottom of the hill and felt like he had done a good deed by ridding the world of the greedy man. 

Author's note:

I decided to rewrite the story The Rolling Rock from the first half of the Blackfoot Unit.  I kept the two main characters in the story the same, but I decided to make the man a thief rather than just someone who gave a gift to the rock and then decided to take it away making the rock angry. In the original story, the man is able to escape the falling rock by asking the creature of the land for help. I changed this by flipping it, I had the animals turning against the old man and helping the rock instead. 

Story Source: The Camp of the Ghosts which is a Blackfoot tale found in Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915)