Matji & Co.Series 1 · Episode 22
The squirrel's treasury
Two collectors meet in the shrine tree. Both attempt to give everything away.
The shrine tree has a treasurer: Momo, a squirrel whose hoard in the third hollow is famous among those who know — bottle caps, one earring, a chess pawn, and forty-one acorns of museum quality.
Motje climbs the tree on an errand and comes face to face with a colleague. Bundle meets hoard. There is a long, reverent silence of mutual professional appraisal.
What follows baffles every observer: a trading session in which both parties attempt only to give. The pawn is pressed upon Motje. A perfect leaf is pressed upon Momo. Refusals are offered, and overruled. By dusk each has given the other nearly everything, and both are visibly richer.
Hana-chan documents the exchange for her nature journal and concludes, in pencil: “Some animals store food for winter. Some store giving.” Gen-san reads it, and sweeps around the shrine tree rather gently now.