Flavian Mwasi, Personal Development | Life Coach at Life and Living
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.
I decided to share this story because someone shared it with me and I thought it was interesting.
IMAGE Credit: Nairaland
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