In the story, Gargamel's mother pays his son a visit to help him destroy the Smurfs. Using a magical plant called the money tree, Gargamel and his mother cast a spell on it to cause it to be planted outside Greedy Smurf's house in the village. When he awakens in the morning, he finds a tree full of "golden goodies" that smell and taste delicious, and is ready to share them with his fellow Smurfs when a devil Smurf, calling himself "the real you", tells Greedy that it would be better to keep them all for himself.
However, the smell of the "golden goodies" attracts the attention of Greedy's fellow Smurfs, and so they gather around him to ask if they could have one of his "golden goodies". The devil Smurf tells Greedy to not give any of them away for free, and so Greedy has his fellow Smurfs trade whatever he thought was valuable to them for a "golden goodie". Harmony gives up his horn, Handy gives up his tools, Brainy gives up his glasses, and so on. Papa Smurf sees all this trading activity going on and decides to investigate. When he tries to taste one of the "golden goodies", Greedy yanks it away and tells Papa Smurf that he must pay for it, causing him to leave disgusted.
Soon the Smurfs have their "golden goodies" and sit together to enjoy the one that they have, but soon find themselves with nothing left. They ask Greedy if they could have their things back, but with the devil Smurf telling him what to say, Greedy tells them that a deal is a deal. Realizing that Greedy now loved possessions more than his fellow Smurfs, they decide to leave him alone with all their possessions he has gained. Soon, after he tires of trying to entertain himself with their possessions, Greedy sees that his fellow Smurfs are able to have fun without needing things, and so decides to give all their stuff back. The devil Smurf becomes so upset with Greedy now being generous that he disappears back into the money tree.
Papa Smurf realizes that it must be Gargamel behind the money tree, and so he has the tree replanted outside Gargamel's house, which attracts the attention of both Gargamel and his mother, and they both end up fighting each other over who gets the "golden goodies" from the tree.
Tropes associated with this episode include
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The title is "The Smurfs and the Money Tree".
- Foreshadowing: Later episodes would have the Smurfs dealing with a Good Angel, Bad Angel.
- Greed: The story is a test of Greedy's moral character, to prove whether he is truly greedy or not.
- Grows on Trees: The titular money tree.
