A man was sentenced to seven long years in prison for stealing millions.
Two years later, while locked behind bars, he received a heartbreaking letter from his elderly father.
 |
| Image for Representation |
The old man wrote:
“My dear son, I am sick and weak now. Planting season has arrived, but there’s no one to turn the soil for the maize. My back can’t take it anymore. I wish you were here. May God bring you home soon.”
Reading those words, the son’s eyes filled with tears… and then with an idea.
He took a pen and wrote back:
“Dear Father,
Whatever you do, DO NOT dig up the backyard. That’s exactly where I buried all the money I stole. Please wait until I come home.”
The letter was placed in the prison mailbox.
Of course, every outgoing letter was read by the guards.
The very next morning, before the sun was fully up, more than a hundred prison officers, detectives, and police swarmed the old man’s small farm.
They came with shovels, metal detectors, and even excavators.
They dug up every inch of that backyard — the vegetable patch, under the mango tree, beside the chicken coop, even the flower beds his late wife had planted.
They dug from dawn till dusk.
They found nothing. Not a single coin.
That night, the son wrote one final letter:
“Dear Dad,
I hope you enjoyed the free help I sent you this morning.
Now the entire field is perfectly plowed and ready.
Go ahead and plant your maize.
I love you.”
The old man read the letter, smiled for the first time in years, and the next day scattered seeds into the richest, most deeply turned soil the farm had ever seen.
A bountiful harvest followed.
Disclaimer: This is a fictional story — an old and beloved piece of internet folklore that has been shared for years. There is no verified record of it ever happening in real life.
Moral of the story:
Even when your hands are tied and the world has locked you away, a sharp mind and a loving heart can still move mountains — or at least get the backyard plowed for free.
Love and cleverness, it turns out, can travel farther than any prison wall could ever stop.
