Juan encounters the magical tree and the silver producing goat.

Juan agreed and the tree split open, producing a fat goat. When Juan ordered his goat to produce silver, it coughed up some pieces of the metal. Cheerfully, Juan took it home. But on the way, Juan met Jaime, a boy who pretended to be his good friend. “What a nice goat you have there,” said Jaime, who always wanted to have things. “Can I have a little milk from her, please?”

In his innocence, Juan told Jaime that the goat could make silver. While Juan was resting, Jaime quickly found a goat that looked the same as Juan’s. He craftily substituted it for Juan’s silver-vomiting one.

Juan took the goat home. There he told his mother that he had got something much better than firewood: a goat that could vomit silver. He told the goat to do so, but it did nothing. Well, almost nothing. It did start eating his mother’s vegetables.

His mother beat Juan for telling lies. Juan cried and ran back to the tree with his machete. He raised it, but just then the tree spoke: “If you leave me in peace, Juan, I will give you a pot that will always be full of rice and a spoon that will always be full of your favorite food.”

Juan agreed, the tree split open, and out came a pot and a spoon. As Juan looked, the pot filled itself with rice and the spoon produced well-cooked meat, Juan’s favorite dish. Suddenly, Jaime was standing there too, asking Juan what he had found this time.

Juan told him what the pot and spoon could do. But he did not tell where they—or the goat—had actually come from. Jaime, however, was a clever boy. He knew that Juan was good at finding things, and so he had brought along a jar of tuba (arrack). Jaime knew that Juan was very fond of tuba. Sure enough, Juan drank it all. He soon fell asleep.

When he woke up, Juan took the pot and the spoon home. But they were not the same ones the tree had given him, for Jaime had replaced them with an ordinary pot and spoon that looked exactly like the magical objects. “Look what I’ve got!” exclaimed Juan, as he came home. “Now you will always have enough rice and meat!”