The Three Oranges

This story is from Morocco.

Once there lived a good king who loved his people very much. For 3 years there was no rain and all the fruit trees stopped giving fruit. This made everyone sad. So the good king said, “Let everyone sing everyday and play music! The trees will be happy and will give fruit again.” So the people began to sing every day and play music.
     Soon, small clouds came in the sky and sent a gentle rain to the earth. When fall came, all the fruit trees were full of sweet, beautiful, ripe fruit.
     Now there lived one poor farmer who said to himself, “I should show my gratitude to our king for his care for us!  Thanks to his wisdom we have all this good fruit.” Then the farmer went out to his field of orange trees and found the three biggest oranges he could find. They were HUGE and very beautiful.  “These 3,” said the farmer, “I will give as a gift to king.”  
     So the poor farmer put the 3 oranges in a basket filled with dark green leaves. He called his young son and said, “You must hurry to the house of our king and give him this gift from our family.”  The boy took the basket and ran off to do what his father told him to do.  
     It was a very hot day and after an hour of running, the boy wanted something to drink, but there was no water anywhere.  The boy looked at the basket of oranges and thought, “Our good king would not want me to die of thirst! He would understand if I took just one orange and ate it.” 
     The boy took the smallest orange and ate it so quickly that not one drop of juice fell on his shirt.  It was the most delicious orange the boy ever ate.
     After another hour of running, the boy could see the castle where the king lived.  The boy was so near to the end of his journey, but he thought he would die of hunger if he didn’t eat something. The boy looked at the basket of oranges and thought, “Surely, our good king would not want me to die of hunger! He would understand if I took just one orange and ate it. I will give him the biggest orange and take the smaller one for myself.”  As fast as you can say “Abra-kadabra” the boy ate the second orange and hurried off to the king’s castle.
     When the boy arrived at the gate of the king's castle, he told the soldiers he had a special gift for the king from his father.  The soldiers went off to tell the king and then came back and told the boy to follow them.    
     When the boy saw the kind face of the king he began to cry and told the king all the truth, how he had been bad and eaten two of the king’s oranges.  The king smiled at the boy and said he was forgiven.  But then the king said, “But how did you eat 2 big oranges and not spill (разлить) even one drop of juice on your shirt?”
     “Oh, it was very easy!” answered the boy. "I did it like this!" Then he picked up the third orange from the basket and ate it in one mouthful. 
     The king laughed so hard that he cried. He then told his guards to fill the boy’s basket with pieces of gold to take back to his father in thanks for the three oranges.