The Baker's Neighbor

Peruvian folktale in which a greedy merchant learns
a valuable lesson from a wise judge. . . .

Adapted by Adele Thane

Characters

MANUEL GONZALES,    a baker
PABLO PEREZ,              his neighbor
CARLOS,                        a boy
RAMONA                       Carlos's sister
INEZ                              Carlos's sister
ISABEL JUDGE THREE WOMEN VILLAGERS

TIME: Early morning.

SETTING: A street in an old town in Peru. At right is Manuel’s Bakery, an outdoor counter with shelves for the display of pastries, and a wooden table and stool near counter. Across the street, at left, is the patio of Pablo’s house, with a bench and chairs on it. At the rear of stage is a flowering tree with a circular seat around the trunk.

AT RISE: MANUEL comes out of bakery with a tray of pies, which he carries to the counter. As he is putting the pies on a shelf, PABLO steps out onto his patio, sniffs the air and smiles with delight.

PABLO: Good morning, Baker Manuel. Your pies smell especially delicious this morning. How many did you bake last night?

MANUEL (Sullenly): What’s it to you? You never buy any; you just smell them. Every day you stand there and fill your nostrils with the fragrance of my pastries. It’s a miracle there’s any flavor left in them when my customers come to buy.

PABLO: But it makes me happy to smell your pastries. You are the best baker in Peru. Everyone says so.

MANUEL: Well, Pablo, why don’t you buy a pie or a cake and take it home? Then you could smell it all you want.

PABLO: Oh, but if I bought it and ate it, I couldn’t smell it any more.

MANUEL (Snorting in disgust): Bah! (When he finishes setting out pies, he goes into bakery with empty tray).

PABLO crosses to counter and inhales deeply, closing his eyes in delight.

MANUEL returns with tray of cakes and cash box. He pushes PABLO away from counter.) Hey! Take your big nose away from there! I can’t sell those pies if you sniff them all over! (PABLO saunters back to his patio. Manuel places tray of cakes on counter, then carries cash box to table and sits.)

 PABLO: Are you going to count your money, Manuel? (MANUEL ignores PABLO, empties coins from cash box onto table. PABLO sits in a chair and watches MANUEL with an amused smile.) How much did you take in yesterday?

MANUEL: None of your business! (He inspects each coin carefully, then writes in small notebook, adds figures, scowling and mumbling to himself. CARLOS, RAMONA, INEZ, and ISABEL enter left. They stop when they see MANUEL and talk quietly together.)

RAMONA: Gracious, what a lot of money!

CARLOS: Papa says the bakery has made Manuel the richest man in town.

INEZ: If he’s that rich, why doesn’t he smile? He looks so cross and unfriendly.

CARLOS: That’s because he’s a miser. A miser doesn’t like people—only money. The more money he has, the more he wants. And he keeps it all to himself— he never shares it with anyone.

ISABEL (Catching sight of PABLO): There’s Pablo!

CARLOS and GIRLS (Enthusiastically; ad lib): Hello, Pablo! How are you?
Good to see you! (Etc.)

PABLO (Beaming at them as he gets up): Hello, my young friends, hello! You’re up bright and early.

ISABEL: We’re going to the bakery.

RAMONA: Carlos is going to treat us.

CARLOS: I helped Papa pick beans and he gave me this. (Holds up silver coin)

PABLO: You’re a good boy, Carlos. 

INEZ (Starting across to bakery): Come on! Let’s see what there is. (Children crowd around the counter.)

RAMONA: Look at those coconut patties!

ISABEL: And the jelly roll! Yummy!

INEZ: Carlos, why don’t you buy a pie and cut it into quarters? Then we’d each have a piece.

CARLOS: I don’t know. I’d sort of like a cake.

MANUEL (Impatiently): Well, young fellow, what do you want? (To INEZ) Keep your fingers off that pie!

INEZ (Indignantly): I didn’t touch it!

MANUEL: Come now, hurry up and decide. This isn’t a waiting room. I
have to make a living. What with rent and taxes, it’s as much as I can do.

CARLOS: How much is that cake with the pink frosting?

MANUEL: You can’t afford that. How much money do you have? (CARLOS shows him.) Not enough. That cake costs three times what you can pay. 

CARLOS: What can I buy with my money? I want something for all of us.

MANUEL: You can have four tapioca tarts—and I’m giving them away at that price. (Hands tarts to CARLOS) Here you are. Now, take your tarts over to Pablo and let him smell them. (He puts CARLOS’s coin with others on table, sits down and makes entry in his notebook. CARLOS passes out tarts to his sisters as they cross to the patio.)

CARLOS (Offering tart to PABLO): Have a bite?

PABLO: No, thank you, Carlos. You earned it—you eat it.

ISABEL: Pablo, why did Manuel say we should let you smell our tarts?

PABLO: Oh, he’s annoyed, because every morning I stand here and enjoy the smell of his pies and cakes fresh from the oven. Ah, what fragrance! It’s as if the bakery has burst into bloom.

RAMONA: If you could be a beautiful smell, Pablo, instead of a man—would you like to be a beautiful bakery smell?

PABLO (Laughing): Well, that’s a new one on me! If I were a smell instead of a man? Of all the comical ideas!

INEZ (Explaining): It’s a game we play. We ask each other what thing we’d like to be if we weren’t a person—what color, what sight, what sound—

RAMONA: What sound would you like to be, Pablo, if you weren’t a person?

PABLO: This minute?

RAMONA: Any minute.

PABLO: Let me think. (Suddenly he slaps his knee) I have it! If I were a
sound instead of a man, I’d choose to be a song! A happy little song in children’s hearts. Or turning up in a boy’s whistle—like this! (He whistles a merry tune.)

ISABEL: What sound do you think Manuel would like to be?

CARLOS: That’s easy. He’d be the sound of gold pieces jingling in his own pocket.

ISABEL: I’m going to ask him. (She goes to table where MANUEL is putting his money back into cash box.) Manuel, may I ask you a question?

MANUEL (Scowling): What is it?

ISABEL: If you were a sound instead of a baker, what sound in the whole wide world would you choose to be?

MANUEL: Well, of all the idiotic nonsense! Clear out of here and stop bothering me! I have better things to do than to answer stupid questions. (ISABEL returns to the patio, and PABLO goes to center stage.)

PABLO: It has taken you a long time to count your money, Manuel.

MANUEL (Sneering): It wouldn’t take you long to count yours.

PABLO: That’s right. I don’t care much for money.

MANUEL: You’re too lazy to earn it.

PABLO (Good-naturedly): Oh, I work when I have to. But I’d rather sit in the sun and take advantage of all the small, everyday pleasures that life has to offer.

MANUEL: Like smelling my pastries, I suppose—without charge?

PABLO (Shrugging): The air is free.

MANUEL: It’s not as free as you think.

PABLO: What do you mean?

MANUEL: I’m going to make you pay for all the pastry smells you’ve taken from me all these years.

PABLO (Smiling in disbelief): You can’t mean that!

MANUEL: But I do! You stand outside my bakery every day and smell my pies and cakes. To my mind, that is the same as taking them without paying for them. You are no better than a thief, Pablo Perez!

PABLO (Mildly): I never took anything that didn’t belong to me, and you know it. What’s more, I haven’t done your business any harm. Why, I’ve even helped it. People often stop when they see me standing here and go in to buy  something. (Children giggle, then
begin to taunt MANUEL and run around him, sniffing.)

ISABEL: I smell raisins!

RAMONA: I smell spice!

INEZ: How much does it cost to smell the flour on your apron?

CARLOS: May I smell your cap for a penny? (He snatches baker’s cap from MANUEL’s head and sniffs it, laughing.)

MANUEL (Angrily, snatching it back):You’ll laugh on the other side of your face when I get the Judge!

PABLO: When you get who?

MANUEL: The Judge. I’m going to tell him the whole story. I’ll show you I’m not joking. The Judge will make you pay me. (He grabs his cash box from table and exits left as THREE WOMEN enter right. They come downstage and question the children.)

1ST WOMAN: What’s the matter with Manuel?

2ND WOMAN: Will he be back soon? I want to buy a cake.

3RD WOMAN: So do I. What happened?

1ST WOMAN: He looked so angry. Where’s he gone?

GIRLS (Excitedly, ad lib): He’s gone to get the Judge! He is angry! He is furious! (Etc.)

1ST WOMAN: The Judge! What for?

CARLOS: He says Pablo will have to pay for smelling his cakes and pies.

2ND WOMAN (To PABLO): He wants you to pay him for doing that?

3RD WOMAN: He can’t be serious!

PABLO: Oh, yes, he is! But I think it’s very funny. (He laughs, and the
WOMEN join in.)

1ST WOMAN: It’s ridiculous! Everyone who goes by the shop smells his pastry.

2ND WOMAN: Is he going to take everyone in town to court? (They are
all in gales of laughter when MANUEL returns with JUDGE, followed by several VILLAGERS.)

MANUEL (To JUDGE): There he is! (Points to PABLO) There’s the thief!

 JUDGE: Calm yourself, Manuel. It has not yet been proved that Pablo is a thief. First he must have a fair trial. (He sits down at table and motions for two chairs to be placed facing him. VILLAGERS and THREE WOMEN gather under tree and on patio with children. They whisper and talk together as they seat themselves.)

1ST VILLAGER: In all my days, I’ve never heard of a case like this before.

2ND VILLAGER: How can a man steal the smell of anything?

3RD VILLAGER: I’m surprised the Judge would even listen to the baker’s story. Money for smelling his cakes! How absurd!

2ND WOMAN: He sells as much bread and pastry as he can bake. What more does he want?

3RD VILLAGER: Manuel loves money, and he figures this is a way to get more of it.

JUDGE (Rapping table with gavel): Quiet, everyone! Court is in session. I am ready to hear Manuel Gonzales, baker, against Pablo Perez, neighbor. Baker, I will hear your story first.

MANUEL (Rising): This man, Pablo Perez, comes and stands outside my
bakery every day.

JUDGE: Does he block the way?

MANUEL: Not exactly.

JUDGE: Does he keep other people from going into your bakery?

MANUEL: No, sir, but—

JUDGE: Then what does he do?

MANUEL: He stands there, looking at my pies and cakes and smelling them.

JUDGE: That pleases you, doesn’t it?

MANUEL: Pleases me! Far from it! Look here, your honor—every night I mix the flour and knead the dough and slave over a hot oven while that shiftless, good-for-nothing Pablo sleeps. Then he gets up in the morning, fresh as a daisy, and comes out here to smell the fine sweet pastry I’ve baked. He takes full value of this free, daily luxury. He acts as if it’s his privilege. Now I ask you, Judge—is it right that I should work so hard to provide him with this luxury, without charge? No!
He should pay for it!

JUDGE: I see. You may sit down, Manuel. Now, Pablo Perez, it is your

turn. (PABLO stands.) Is it true that you stand in front of Manuel’s bakery and smell his cakes and pies?

PABLO: I can’t help smelling them, your honor. Their spicy fragrance fills the air.

JUDGE: Would you say you enjoy it?

PABLO: Oh, yes, sir. I am a man of simple pleasures. Just the smell of a bakery makes me happy.

JUDGE: But did you ever pay the baker for this pleasure?

PABLO: Well, no, sir. It never occurred to me that I had to pay him.

JUDGE: Pablo Perez, you will now put ten gold pieces on this table—for Manuel Gonzales! (VILLAGERS gasp. MANUEL looks surprised and delighted.)

PABLO (Stunned): Ten gold pieces! For smelling the air near my own house?

JUDGE: Do you have that amount?

PABLO: I—I guess so, but it’s my life’s savings.

JUDGE: Where is it?

PABLO: In my house.

JUDGE: Get it and bring it here. (Slowly PABLO crosses patio and exits left. VILLAGERS talk to each other disapprovingly.)

1ST VILLAGER: The Judge shouldn’t make Pablo pay.

1ST WOMAN: Pablo is an honest man.

2ND VILLAGER: I don’t see how the Judge could rule in the baker’s favor.

3RD VILLAGER: Why, he’s richer than the Judge himself. 

2ND WOMAN: And now he’s going to get poor Pablo’s savings. 

3RD WOMAN: It’s not fair! 

JUDGE (Rapping with his gavel): Silence in the court! (PABLO returns sadly with purse, puts it on table before MANUEL, elated, he rubs his hands together greedily.)

MANUEL (To JUDGE): I knew your honor would do the right thing by me. Thank you, Judge. (He picks up purse and starts to put it into his cash box.)

JUDGE (Rising): Not so fast, Manuel! Empty that purse on the table and
count the gold pieces, one by one.

MANUEL (Grinning craftily): Ah, yes, your honor. I must make sure I haven’t been cheated. How kind of you to remind me! (He empties purse and begins to count, excitedly. JUDGE watches MANUEL as he lovingly examines each coin.)

JUDGE: It gives you great pleasure to touch that gold, doesn’t it, Manuel? You enjoy it.

MANUEL: Oh, I do, I do! Eight, nine, ten. It’s all here, your honor, and none of it false.

JUDGE: Please put it back in the purse. (MANUEL does so.) Now return it to Pablo.

MANUEL (In disbelief): Return it! But—but you just told Pablo to pay it
to me.

JUDGE: No, I did not tell him to pay it to you. I told him to put it on this table. Then I instructed you to count the money, which you did. In doing so, you enjoyed Pablo’s money the way he has enjoyed your cakes and pies. In other words, he has smelled your pastry and
you have touched his gold. Therefore, I hereby declare that the case is now settled. (Raps twice with his gavel. MANUEL shamefacedly shoves purse across table to PABLO and turns to exit. JUDGE stops him.) Just a moment, Manuel! I hope this has been a lesson to you. In the future, think less about making money and more about making friends. Good friends and neighbors are better than gold. And now, if you please—my fee!

MANUEL: Yes, your honor. (He opens his cash box but JUDGE closes the lid.)

JUDGE: Put away your money. There’s been enough fuss over money already today. The fee I am asking is this—pies and cakes for everyone here—free of charge! (MANUEL nods his head vigorously in assent. VILLAGERS and children cheer, then they rush to pastry
counter and help themselves).

MANUEL goes into bakery and reappears with more pastry piled high on tray. PABLO and JUDGE hold a whole pie between them and start to eat from opposite edges toward the center of pie,
as curtain closes.

THE END

Production notes on the Baker's Neighbor

CHARACTERS: 4 male; 6 female; male
and female extras for villagers.

PLAYING TIME: 15 minutes.

COSTUMES: Traditional Peruvian village folk costume. Manuel wears apron and white hat, and

 Judge wears long robe.

PROPERTIES: Tray of small pies, cash box containing coins, notebook and pencil, small cakes, tarts, cookies, etc.,
gavel, coin purse containing ten coins, trays.

SETTING: A street in an old town in
Peru. At right is bakery, outdoor
counter with shelves in front of it. Near
baker are a table and stool. At left is
patio of Pablo’s house, with chairs and
a bench. At rear is a flowering tree
with circular bench around trunk.

LIGHTING: No special effects.

5.RL.3 I can compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact) by analyzing “The Baker’s Neighbor.”

5.RL.1 I can quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text, by defending the characters in the story of the “Baker’s Neighbor”.