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Once upon a time, there was a merchant who lived in a
small village by the edge of a desert. One day, he rode
on his camel to town to buy wheat, millet and fruit. The
journey through the desert was long and hot. On his way,
he passed by a huge rock. He alighted from his camel to
cool and rest himself in the shadow of the rock. While he was resting, he noticed a damp patch on the
sand. He went near to take a closer look and found oil
oozing out from the ground. He quickly dug into the sand
and oil flowed out like spring water. He jumped up and
shouted, "I'll be rich!". Hastily, he emptied all his
water bags and filled them with oil. Soon, all the four
bags were full. "I'll sell the oil, buy another camel
and some more bags to get all the oil," he thought
happily and then hurried to town.
He sold the oil, bought what he needed and returned
hurriedly. He filled the bags and loaded the two camels
with bag after bag of oil. The sun was setting rapidly
but the greedy merchant carried on filling his bags with
oil and tying them to the poor camels. He threw away all
his water and used the bags for more oil.
At last, he was too exhausted to work. So, he climbed
onto one of the camels to ride to town. To his dismay,
the camel stumbled after a few steps and
collapsed. All the bags burst and the precious oil
disappeared into the sand in no time. "What a silly
beast!" said the angry merchant. Then, he climbed onto
the other camel. Alas, that camel too collapsed under
the extra weight. The bags of oil vanished into the
sand. The merchant, weary and saddened, sighed.
Empty-handed, he began to walk back to the town.
The town was far away and the merchant had not a drop of
water. The cold desert wind blew. Soon, the sun sank
below the horizon. The desert suddenly became a vast
endless stretch of darkness. The tired merchant groped
his way around, not knowing the direction to the town. |
