This Indonesian folktale uses the metaphor of different parts of a mango tree (roots, trunk, leaves, fruits) to illustrate how everyone has burdens, even if they may not be visible. The roots complain about holding up the whole tree, while the trunk worries about bearing the weight of branches and fruit. The leaves and fruits also feel they have difficulties. However, the roots point out that all parts depend on each other. The moral is that among people too, one should consider others' perspectives before complaining, and a balanced democracy respects the roles and burdens of all.

1. Everybody
Has A Burden
(An Indonesian Folktale)

2. “Everybody has his
burden but the heaviest
burden is for the small
and the low.”

3. Vocabulary
 Sullen – depressed, melancholy.
 Grumbling – murmuring or muttering.
 Grumpily – exhibiting surliness or gruffness.
 Fretted – worried or annoyed.
 Sulky – stunted or sluggish.
 Bataks – a collective term used to identify
a number of ethnic groups
predominantly found in North
Sumatra, Indonesia.

4. Characters:
 Roots
 Trunks
 Leaves
 Fruits

5. Once there was a mango tree. It had
many large branches which gave generous
shade and bore many luscious fruits.
Everybody who saw the fine yield of fruit
admired the tree and wished they owned a
tree like it.
One day, a complaining voice was
heard right at the bottom of the tree.
“Poor me. What a burden I have to
bear. I’ve got to carry such a load; the
heavy trunk, all the huge branches, all the
leaves and fruit. So heavy is my load that
I’m buried alive in the soil.”

6. When the trunk heard this sullen
outburst, he answered:
“My dear brother, don’t talk like that.
Do you really think I have a nice life? You
don’t know I have to bear the weight of
those great branches and all the load of
fruit on me. I’m always frightened when
there is a hard whirlwind shaking my body.
The whirlwind turns and twists my body so
badly. You don’t know how it hurts. I am
fortunate if I don’t break into two. If I
do, then everything is finished.”

7. The grumbling of the trunk was heard
by the leaves. They fretted to hear these
words of envy about themselves. So they
said grumpily:
“How sad are we to hear you both
talking like that. How ungrateful you both
are: Isn’t it we who protect you from the
burning rays of the sun? And what about
the rainy season? How can you say that we
have a nice life! It’s the fruit who have a
nice life, hanging and swinging all day. It is
the fruit that counts for everybody.”

8. The fruits were saddened to hear this
talk. They said in a sulky voice:
“My dear brothers and sisters, how
sad are we to hear your words. It is far from
the truth of what we actually feel and what
we have to face every time. We are the
most to be pitied.”
“Stop, stop talking!”, the root said
harshly again. “No need to talk anymore. All
of you depend on me. If I don’t exist all of
you will not be there.”

9. ..So, it must be among people
too, say the Bataks. Think what others feel
before you take a step. The true balance of
democracy is when the leaves, fruit, trunk
and roots are all taken into the picture.

10. Conflict
Man versus Man

11. END!!