There was once a small and famous bakery store, “Emilius’s bakery”. Customers had to wait in a long line to buy the baker’s goodies.
Emilius, the baker, and his assistant Bekim would very often talk with the materials they used in their recipes: the flour, the sugar, the cheese, the salt, the olive oil, the yeast, the butter, the raisins, the sesame, and a whole lot of others. Together, they were a great team; they got on well with one another and always helped each other. And all was well until, late one night, the terrible jealousy germ stepped into the bakery.
At first, it stood on the small cupboard, which was between the container of butter and the can of olive oil. After a little while, the germ got closer to them and started telling secrets in their ears, separately. The olive oil and the butter looked angrily at each other. “I’m white and fluffy, but you’re stealing the best recipes I could be in. I don’t want friends like you from now on!” said the butter to the olive oil.
“I’m pure gold, but you push your way into most of our recipes because you can’t stand people talking about how much I’m worth! I would be better off without you!” the butter answered, with an equally angry tone in its voice. Since then, they both turned their backs to one another and never spoke to each other again.
Later on, the jealousy germ turned the sugar against the salt. “I’m much worthier than you. Everybody adores my sweet cookies and my donuts!” said the sugar to the salt, with its chin and nose raised high. “You’re good enough only to bring toothaches to people! My spinach pies have won an international award!” answered the salt.
“Big deal! And stop bragging or I’ll take your award down that wall and tear it to pieces!” threatened the sugar
After that, the jealousy germ made sure there would be another fight too, one between the wooden shovel and the flour.
“If it wasn’t for me, you would’ve been nothing in your life!” said the flour to the shovel.
The wooden shovel was insulted. It stood in front of the flour, ready to attack. “If I give you only one punch you’ll spread all over the place! Then you’ll see who’s nothing in his life!” it said.
A little before daybreak, when Emilius and Bekim came into the bakery, to start work, everyone in the store were exchanging angry looks.
“What’s going on here? You’ve got to work together - we’re a team! We’ve got so many things to do today.” Emilius said to them.
“Forget what happened and be friends again - come on, shake hands” begged Bekim.
But the fighting wasn’t over yet. As long as they continued the fight, the jealousy germ got fatter and fatter. Emilius couldn’t understand how all this had started, until he heard the germ laughing out loudly
“Catch it! It’s going to destroy us!” Emilius shouted and started running after it. Behind him ran Bekim, the can of white cheese, the bag of flour, the can of olive oil, the shovel, the baking cups for cupcakes, the roller, the baking pans, and the large jar of olives. They were chasing the germ all around the bakery store.
Suddenly, the germ disappeared and everyone thought it had left the store. It appeared again the following morning. It had hidden itself inside an empty sesame box. Like a sly fox, it approached the donuts and got them into a fight with the cheese pies.
“Why are you standing in the best place in our store’s window? We are the ones who should be standing there!” shouted a well baked cheese pie to the donuts. “Oh, get lost! Go to the other side of the window, where you belong! You’re stealing customers from us!” answered back a delicious looking donut.
Their baskets kept pushing each other. That set the fire for a real bad fight, with punches and kicks this time, not only with words. Emilius and Bekim tried to part them but it was impossible to stop the fight.
Every day they were all upset and shouting at each other. Poor Emilius! He could no longer plan what to bake. So, he stopped accepting orders. The jealousy germ was really enjoying itself.
Emilius couldn’t find a way to get rid of it till he got an idea: to clean up the whole store with a germ spray and a strong, bad-smelling cleaner. “That’s it! The germ would either leave the store or die!” he said to Bekim.
But the jealousy germ neither left nor died. Instead, the germ spray and the bad smell from the cleaner made all the customers leave, holding their noses.
One day, the jealousy germ was hanging on Irene’s ponytail - Irene was Emilius’s cousin. It started swinging back and forth. It also took its tongue out to Emilius. The baker could not stand this any more.
He took the baking shovel and, furious as he was, he hit Irene on the head with it! Irene was so mad at him that she asked all their relatives never to shop from her cousin’s bakery again, for what he had done to her.
When Emilius’s friends and neighbors heard about what had happened with Irene, they believed Emilius was out of his mind and were afraid to go shopping at his store. No customers came into the small and famous bakery. So, finally, the baker had to close it down.
Without Emilius and Bekim around, the jealousy germ had become the master of the place. It made everyone’s life miserable. The salt, the sugar, the butter, the olive oil, the shovel, the flour, the cheese pies, the donuts had no friends to turn to, as they had all become enemies. Their days were spent in boredom and laziness, without any interest or purpose.
Early one morning, while the jealousy germ was still snoring, the olive oil and the butter were looking at the people walking past the store’s window. These same people used to come shopping at the bakery. The can of olive oil gave a quick look at the container of butter. How many goodies they used to make together, with a little butter and a little olive oil, those good old days!
A teardrop ran down the can’s metal cheek. The container of butter saw it, felt his heart break and gave the can of olive oil a big hug.
The salt, the sugar, the shovel and the flour, who were watching, realized that it was the jealousy germ that had caused their misery. They, too, started hugging each other.
It was then that they all made the most important decision: to become friends again and open the bakery store. As they were shouting in joy, the germ woke up and was taken by surprise.
“Hey! What’s going on here? You must’ve forgotten how much you hate each other!” it said.
“You’re wrong. We had forgotten how much we love each other!” answered the sugar. The butter and the olive oil pushed the germ aside and immediately got to work.
Then, something happened that nobody expected. The jealousy germ started getting smaller and thinner. The more they worked together as a team, the smaller and thinner the germ got. Till it became so tiny that no one could see it. So, it ran away, into the streets, shouting:
“Help! They’re going to extinguish me!”
The next morning, when Emilius passed by, he couldn’t believe his eyes. His bakery store was open again, with all its famous goodies, sweet ones and salty ones, just like the good old days. The customers started waiting in a long line, as before. Bekim returned too, and they were a great, strong and happy team, as they used to be.
The jealousy germ could never again live in that small bakery, not even for an hour. As soon as it sneaked in, it ran away like crazy. Because now, they knew how to keep it away:
By loving
each other and working together for the good of all.