The Fruit of Obedience

They told this story of John the Short. He went to live with a hermit from Thebaid, who was living in the desert of Skete. His abba once took a dead stick and planted it, and told him, "Pour a jug of water over its base every day until it bears fruit."

Water was so far from their cell that John had to go off every evening to fetch it and it was dawn before he returned. At the end of three years the stick turned green, and bore fruit.

The hermit picked some of the fruit and took it to church, and said to the brothers, "Take and eat of the fruit of obedience."