The Old Man His Sons

Hello everyone,

    The story that I am going to tell you is situated in India.

    This story was told to me by my Aunt Fatma. She always gave me lessons about life by telling me stories. She was a great lady who has moulded me to what I am today. It is thanks to her that I can think so positively. I hope that she is happy with me when she looks down from heaven. Thank you Aunty.

   

THE OLD MAN AND HIS SONS

    Once upon a time there was an old man in India. He had two sons. He was a rich business man. He was growing old and he decided to hand over his business to one of his sons. He thought about it a lot but could not decide whom he should leave his business to. And so he decided to put both his sons to test. He called them to him one day.

    “My sons as you know I’m growing old,” he said. “Also my health is not as good as it used to be. I want to leave my business to one of you. I’m going to give you both a test. I will give you some money and then I want you to buy something that would fill the house and if possible save some money.”

    Then, he gave them some money. It was very little as he wanted to see how his sons’ brains worked.

    The brothers thought very hard as to what you could get that would fill the house. 

    After thinking a lot the older brother bought a lot of hay and filled the house with it, but still there was some space left in the house and all the money had been spent. 

    “Father, I was just able to buy this much hay because it was the cheapest thing I could buy,” he said and added somewhat reproachfully.  “The money was not enough that you gave us. Maybe if you would have given us some more money I would have been able to buy something better.”

    “What does this depict?” asked the old man in disappointment.

    “It depicts that I shall always keep our house full of all sorts of things,” he said, proudly. “I hope you are satisfied with my work.”

     “I will not judge now until I have seen what your younger brother has done,” replied the old man.

    Now, the younger brother had sat thinking and then he went and bought some candles. He had bought enough candles to light the whole house and there was some money left over. He took these candles home and lit one in each room. Then he went to his father with the leftover money.

    “Father, I bought candles to light up our house,” he said. “I hope you are satisfied with my work.”

    “That is good work, my son,” said the old man, very much delighted and asked, “And what does this depict?”

    “It depicts that I shall always keep our house lighted up with hope, happiness and prosperity,” said the younger brother with confidence.

    The old man was delighted with his younger son’s integrity and the ability to think positively.

    “You see you had totally missed the mark,” said the old man to his older son. “Hay does not depict anything. You cannot fill the house with things without first earning money. You have to show integrity and lots of positive attitude to do that. You also have to have good morals and ethics if you want to do business my son.”

    The older son was dumbfounded. He had nothing to say. To some extent he was angry and disappointed that he could not live up to his father's expectations. So he did not say anything but stood there with his head bowed low.

    And so the old man gave his business to his younger son.  

    As for the older son, he gave him some money and some property. 

    The older son was jealous but he knew that he had made a huge mistake and so he had to make do with whatever his father gave him. He was so angry he sold all his property and took all the money and left town to go and live elsewhere with his family.

    After a few years he died and the younger son carried on with his father’s business and expanded it and when he grew old he left his business to his children.