The Walnut and the Bell Tower

Once upon a time, a hungry black crow picked up a walnut he saw amidst some leaves on the ground. The big bird carried it in his beak up to the top of a high bell tower. This bell tower was at the top of a magnificent church, one famed throughout all of Italy for its beauty and design.

Once the bird had perched himself on the bell tower, he took hold of the nut between his claws and then began to peck at it with his beak to open it and get at the meat. He worked at this for some time, but he was having no success in getting the walnut open because the shell was especially hard.

Suddenly, to the crow's immense frustration, the nut slipped out of his claws, rolled down, and disappeared into a crack in the church wall.

The crow flew down to the crack in the wall and poked his beak in, trying to reach the walnut. But it was wedged in just out of his reach.

“This is such a disappointment,” thought the crow. He had been looking forward to a lunch of walnut meat. “Oh, well. I'll simply have to find another.” And, off he flew in search of something else to eat.

This left the walnut in a rather difficult position. Now that he realized he had been freed from the crow's fearful beak, he did not want the wall to squeeze him out from the crevice in which he'd landed. He was afraid that if he were expelled from his hiding place, the crow or another bird might once again try to eat him.

So the walnut asked the wall to help him out.

“Wall, fair Wall,” begged the walnut, “in the name of God, who has been so good to you, making you tall and strong, graceful and beautiful, and giving you all of these fine bells that sound so beautiful, please save me. All of my life, I felt that I was destined to fall beneath my old father's branches and to rest in the rich earth covered with yellow leaves. Once there, I'd hoped to grow by my father's side and become a beautiful tree that could cast shade on a hot day, offer shelter from a rainstorm, and beauty to the landscape. Oh, fair Wall, don't abandon me, please. When I was in the terrible, frightening beak of that fierce crow I made a promise. ‘If I ever escape,’ I said to myself, ‘I promise to finish my days in a little hole, causing problems for no one.’”

The bells in the tower, with a gentle, jingling murmur, warned the bell tower to be careful. The bells felt that the walnut might be dangerous and could cause problems for the wall. “How could the wall be sure about the walnut's character?” they asked with their gentle chimes.

But the wall, being a rather kindhearted sort of fellow and feeling sorry for the walnut, decided to shelter it. It allowed the walnut to stay where it had fallen from the crow's beak. For a time, things went well. The walnut stayed nestled in its snug hiding place, and the wall continued to support its part of the bell tower.

But eventually, the walnut began to regret its promise to live in the little hole. It longed to reach out and grow. So one day the walnut opened up and put its roots through some cracks in the stone wall. Then the roots started to do damage, forcing their way between the blocks of stone until finally little branches began to peep out of the hole in the wall. As the years passed, the branches grew thicker and became stronger and stretched up above the top of the bell tower. And the roots, by now massive and twisted, began to make more holes in the walls, pushing out all of the old stones.

The wall realized too late that the walnut's humility and its vow to stay hidden in the hole were not sincere. The walnut said what it had to say in order to convince the wall to keep it safe. The wall now regretted not having listened to the savvy words of the wise bells.

By now, though, the wall had no recourse and could do nothing to stop the damage of the walnut tree. In fact, the walnut tree went on growing and the poor, unhappy, deceived wall crumbled and fell.

If you care to visit, the walnut tree is growing there still. And surrounding it, is a heap of stones that once made up the gentle wall of the bell tower.