20/05/2024
A very poor newly-wedded young couple lived in a small farm in the countryside. One day, the husband made the following suggestion to his wife:
“Honey, if I stay here we will both starve to death. So, I’ve decided to leave home and travel far away, get a job and work hard in order to come back and give you the comfortable life that you deserve. I don’t know how long I will be away. I only ask this one thing from you—please wait for me while I’m away, and remain faithful to me, as I will be faithful to you.“
The wife tried unsuccessfully to stop him, but it was all in vain. So his young wife had to agree and let him leave. He walked for many days until he found a rich farmer who needed a farmhand. After agreeing on the terms, the young man was offered a job.
He agreed and they discussed the terms with his new boss.
The young man proposed:
“Let me work for you as long as I can, and when I think I should go home, please relieve me of my duties. I do not want to receive my monthly wages. I ask you to save it for me, until the day I leave. The day I decide to go, please give me the money and I will go my way.”
So they agreed on that. The young man worked hard for twenty years without taking a holiday and without rest.
After working for twenty years, he came back to his boss and said:
“Excuse me Boss, I have decided to quit my job and return back home, so I request you to pay my dues.”
The boss replied:
“Ok. After all, I made a deal with you and I will not negate from it. However, before you go, I want to offer you something new: Either I will give you all your money and send you away, or I will give you three pieces of advice and send you away. If I give you the money, you lose the three pieces of advice. If I give you the three pieces of advice, you forfeit your wages. Now, go to your room and think hard about it.”
He spent two days thinking about it. After two days, he came back to his boss and told him:
“I want the three pieces of advice.”
“Are you sure?” asked the boss. “If I give you the three pieces of advice, you forfeit the money. Are you prepared to go back to your wife empty-handed?”
The man insisted: “I want the three pieces of advice.”
So the boss gave him the three pieces of advice:
Advice No. #1: Never take shortcuts in your life, shorter and unknown paths can cost your life.
Advice No. #2: Never be too curious, for curiosity towards evil can be deadly.
Advice No. #3: Never make decisions in moments of anger or pain, because you will definitely make the wrong decisions and besides, you may do something you will regret later.
After giving the man the three pieces of advice, the boss gave him three loaves of bread and dismissed him saying:
“Here… take these three loaves of bread—two are for you to eat during your long journey so that you don’t faint along the way, and one is for you to eat with your wife when you arrive home.”
So, the man went his way.
After twenty years away from home and from his wife, whom he loved so much, he didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t know what to tell his wife once he arrived back home, especially for not even writing. He wasn’t even sure if his wife was alive or dead. He felt like he had just been released from prison.
After the first day of travel, he found a man who greeted him and asked, “Where are you going?”
“To a distant place which is about 20 days' journey if I continue walking”, the man replied.
The man said to him:
“Ol' boy, this path is too long! I know a shortcut that is very safe and you will arrive in five days flat.”
After briefly thinking about it, the man started to follow the path suggested but then remembered the first piece of advice. Then, he returned and followed the long path.
Years later, he learned that the shortcut led to an ambush. Had he traveled that route he would have been killed.
After a few more days of travel, he found an inn by the roadside, where he could rest. He paid for a room and after taking a bath he lay down to sleep. During the night he woke up as he heard a terrifying scream. He rose to his feet and went to the door to check what had happened. As he was opening the door, he remembered the second piece of advice.
Therefore he locked the door and returned and lay down again and slept. At dawn, after eating breakfast, the inn-keeper asked him whether he had heard the scream at night. He affirmed that he had heard the scream.
Then the inn-keeper said, “Were you not curious to see what happened?”
And he replied, “No, I wasn’t.”
Then, the inn-keeper said:
“You are the first guest to leave this inn alive. My neighbor is completely insane. He usually shouts at night to call someone’s attention. Once some of the guests are curious and come out, he kills them and buries their bodies in the backyard.”
So the man continued his long journey, eager to arrive home soon.
After many days and nights walking, he was very tired, but he finally saw his house far away. It was night. He saw some light coming out of the window of his house and was able to see the silhouette of his wife. But he also saw that she wasn’t alone—she was with someone else. As he approached the house, he saw that there was a man with her. He saw that she was hugging him and softly caressing his hair. When he saw what appeared to be a romantic scene, he was filled with rage and his heart was filled with disappointment, hatred, and bitterness.
He thought of rushing in immediately and killing them both mercilessly. However, after taking a deep breath, he remembered the third piece of advice. Then he stopped and reflected on the matter. He decided to take a walk the way he had come. There were some bushes nearby, so he decided to spend the night in the bushes, determined to make a decision the following day.
When he woke up at dawn, he felt much better and was calmer. He thought, “I will not kill my wife and her lover. I will go back to my boss and ask him to take me back. But before I go, I want to tell my wife that I have always been faithful to her.”
So he walked to the front door and knocked. When his wife opened the door and recognized him, she screamed loudly and hugged him passionately. He tried to push her away, but she held him so tightly.
Then, with tears in his eyes, he told her, “I was faithful to you but you betrayed me.”
She was shocked, so she replied:
“How did I betray you? I have never betrayed you. I waited patiently for you for twenty good years. You never even wrote a letter.”
Then he asked:
“How about the man that you were hugging and caressing last night?”
She replied:
“That man you saw is your son. When you left, I discovered I was pregnant. Today, he is twenty years old. He left to work at the farm this morning.”
Hearing that, the man fell down on his knees and asked for her forgiveness. He also asked forgiveness for not even writing to his wife.
So he tried to explain what had happened and all the things he had experienced during the twenty years he was away. He also told her about his 20-day ordeal.
Later in the day, a twenty-year-old young man stood at the front door. They looked at each other. It was like looking at himself in the mirror. He didn’t know what to do or to say. So, unable to hold back his emotions, and with tears in his eyes, he approached the young man, hugged him tightly, and they both started weeping on each others’ shoulders uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, his wife prepared some coffee for them to eat together. After saying a prayer of thanksgiving, he unwrapped the bread which he had been given by his boss. His boss had wrapped it very carefully to prevent it from going bad. He now broke the break to share it with his family. As he did so, something fell out of the bread and he realized it was wrapped. He picked it up and unwrapped it.
To his amazement, he noticed there was money inside. When he counted it, it amounted to all the money for his twenty-year wages and more... In fact, there was more money than his twenty-year wages. He guessed that it must have been the bonus for his twenty years of dedication, loyalty, and hard work.
Will this simple of advice change your life???
I decided to share this story because someone shared it with me and I thought it was interesting.
Copied from Maal Maker Thiong
