Michael Punzak's Inspiration

When Michael Punzak first read this story, in an out-of-print collection of Persian folktales, he immediately fell in love with it.

Without ever reading the story again, he re-imagined it as Master Bean (instead of Master pea) adding in such details as the green-and-white baseball cap, the "jewels of all sorts and descriptions," the twenty-one dollar bills" and several others.

He has told the story hundreds of times.