Durian for toys: Cash-strapped father barters fruits with roadside seller

KUANTAN: Strapped for cash and unable to buy toys for his children, a father offered to barter durians for toys for his three children.

An unnamed roadside toy seller shared the story on Facebook of a father who pleaded with him to make the trade.

According to the toy seller, the father, who had a few durian trees around his house in Jengka, a rural district in central Pahang, had approached him near their village with the offer.

Seeing the father's pleading look and the children's wide-eyed stares at his inventory of toys, the toy seller agreed.

"The toys that the kids liked were worth RM200. I agreed to accept RM200 worth of durians," the seller wrote.

The father rushed home to get his fruits and on returning, the peddler was stunned to be given 18 Musang King durians plus a few more D24 clones.

Musang King is famed for its powerful bittersweet flavour, creamy texture, substantial pulp and small seed per aril.

It sells for between RM100 to RM180 per kg. When exported to China, durian lovers there pay RM500 per kg for it.

The D24 variant is an old Malaysian favourite, loved for its honey-sweet pulp and extra-large, creamy arils. It usually retails for RM30 to RM50 per kg.

The peddler shared how he was choked with emotion after accepting the durians and seeing the kids' delight for their new toys: a drone, two remote-controlled cars and a horse-shaped kiddie push bike.