Folklore 203: The Magic Orange Tree
Justice and Reward
This is a classic folktale that has been recorded in text multiple times.
But like all folktales, there are many versions of this tale.
Sometimes it’s a mother, not a stepmother.
In others, she finds the oranges on the table inside the house.
If you are Haitian, the version your family knows is likely influenced by the area they come from.
One version of The Magic Orange Tree from Storytelling Podcast for Kids:E287 by Kathleen Pelley
And like most oral stories, each storyteller adds their own razzle dazzle. So this recounting here will have our razzle dazzle, because we are the storytellers telling this story from our vantage point.
More broadly—justice in Haitian folktales is not always immediate. It’s the concept of putting in effort (sometimes even suffering) to get your final reward.
This is one of those stories where what someone does—and why they do it—matters just as much as the outcome.
Klas la nan sesyon.
The Tale
Krik?
Krak!
There was once a little girl whose mother died the day she was born.
Her father loved her dearly, but after he remarried, her life changed.
Her stepmother was cruel. She mistreated the girl, gave her endless chores, and often refused to feed her.
Every day, the girl worked from morning to night, fetching water, washing clothes, cooking meals she was never allowed to eat.
Still, she remained kind. And she sang.
One day, weak with hunger, she saw three oranges lying in the road.
She bent down to pick them up, but they rolled away.
Each time she reached for them, they moved farther, leading her all the way to the edge of the forest.
Exhausted, she sat down beneath a tree and began to sing.
A spirit heard her and appeared before her.
It asked why she was crying.
“I am hungry,” she said. “And my stepmother does not feed me.”
The spirit gave her a seed.
“Plant this,” it said. “But remember—the fruit will belong only to the one who planted it with a pure heart.”
The girl went home and planted the seed quietly.
She sang to it as it grew:
Pye zoranj, grandi, grandi, grandi…
By morning, a tree stood tall, its branches full of bright oranges.
When the girl reached for them, the branches bent down toward her.
She ate slowly and carefully.
The stepmother saw what had happened.
She tried to take from the tree, but the branches pulled away.
Her daughters tried, but the tree would not respond to them.
Only the girl could reach the fruit.
And still, she shared.
Because she knew what it meant to be hungry.
But the stepmother grew jealous.
One night, she took a knife and went to cut the tree down.
The moment the blade touched the tree, everything changed.
The tree fought back.
The ground shook, the branches struck, and the wind rose.
Terrified, the stepmother ran and never returned.
The next morning, the girl saw the damage done to the tree.
She did not celebrate.
She cried.
Not for herself, but for what greed had done.
From that day on, she continued to share the fruit.
And no one who came to her went hungry again.
What is the Moral of the Story?
Beyond justice & reward.
- the difference between need and greed
- what happens when something is taken versus when it is given
- how intention shapes that outcome
- rewards sometimes come to those who wait.
Lekòl lage!