The Farmer's Wife

The Farmer's Wife – the story of how a woman retrieves an apple from a hole in the ground – is one of the many Sufi tales for children. For over a thousand years it has entertained young people who join in the chant of this cumulative tale and, at the same time, learn its valuable lessons about the nature of problem solving and discovery. For more than 30 years Idries Shah's collections of Teaching-Stories and narratives from the Sufi tradition have captivated the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. Shah selected the majority of these tales from oral sources. They are repeated in homes, courts and caravanserais throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.