A branch of the date palm tree of one of the Muslims reached the house of a poor man. When the palmist climbed the date palm tree to take off the dates, sometimes some of the dates would drop in the house of this poor man and his children would pick them up. The man would come down from the tree and snatch the dates from them, many times if he saw a date in the mouth of any of the children, he would put his finger in their mouth and bring it out.
The poor man complained to the Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.a): The Prophet (s.a.w.a) said: You go home, I will solve this problem for you. Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a ) went to the owner of the tree and offered him to give it to him so that he can give it a tree in the heaven.
To this the owner replied,"I have a lot of date palm trees, but no one's dates are as good as this tree (so I'm not ready to make this deal)." One of the companions of the Prophet (s.a.w.a) heard this conversation. He said: O Messenger of Allah, if I go and buy this tree from this person, will you give me what you were giving to him?
Prophet (s.a.w.a) replied: Yes!
The man went and met the owner of the tree and talked to him about it. The owner of the date palm tree said: “Do you know that Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave me a palm tree in Paradise in return? But I did not accept. I told them that I enjoy its dates very much, I have a lot of date palm trees but no one's dates are so good.”
The buyer asked if he wanted to sell or not. He said: I will not sell it, but only if you give me so much that no one will. He asked: How much do you want for it? He said forty trees.
The buyer said in astonishment: So you ask for a very high price for a date palm tree that has become crooked. Forty date palm trees!
Then after a short silence he said: Very well, I will give you forty date palm trees.
The seller (greedy) said, "If you are telling the truth, call some men to testify." Incidentally, some people were passing by. He called them and made them witnesses in the matter.
Then he came to the service of the Prophet (s.a.w.a) and said: O Messenger of Allaah! That date palm tree has come into my possession, and I present it to you.
The Prophet (s.a.w.a) went to the family of the poor man and said to the owner of the house: “Now, this date palm tree belongs to you and your children.”
