The Trouble Tree: I recently heard a story called ‘The Trouble Tree’, about a carpenter who was hired to help restore an old farmhouse. Each night the boss would drive the carpenter home and before entering the house he noticed the man always touched the tree beside his porch. Eventually, curiosity gets the better of him and so he said, “I have noticed that when you go up on the porch before going into your house you always stop and touch the tree, why?” “Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” the man replied. “I know that I can’t stop from having troubles out on the job, but one thing’s for sure – my troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again.” – “The funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up again, they aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

Anon. (various sources on www)