BEST SHORT STORY EVER!!!!!

 The Sack

A Sufi Story from the Middle East

            Mula came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town. "What's wrong?" he asked.The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, "All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack."

            "Too bad," said Mula, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man's hands and ran down the road with it.

            Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking. Meanwhile, Mula quickly ran around the bend and placed the man's sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.

            When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, "My sack! I thought I'd lost you!"

Watching through the bushes, Mula chuckled. "Well, that's one way to make someone happy!"

MONKEY AND CROCODILE

One day a monkey wanted to cross a river. He saw a crocodile in the river, so he asked the crocodile to take him across the other side. The crocodile told the monkey to jump on its back. Then the crocodile swam down the river.

Now, the crocodile was very hungry, so when it was in the middle of the river, it stopped and said to the monkey, ”Monkey, my father is very sick. He must eat the heart of the monkey. Then he will be strong again.”

The monkey thought for a while. Then he told the crocodile to swim back to the river bank.

“What’s for?” asked the crocodile.

“Because I didn’t bring my heart with me,” said the monkey. “I left it under the tree, near some coconuts.”

So, the crocodile turned around and swam back to the bank of the river. As soon as they reached the river bank, the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and climbed up to the top of a tree.

“Where is your heart?” asked the crocodile.

“You are foolish,” the monkey said to the crocodile. “Now I am free and you have nothing.”

The monkey told the crocodile not to try to fool him again. The crocodile swam away, hungry.

THE PURSE OF GOLD

A beggar found a leather purse that someone had dropped in a market place. Opening it, he discovered that it contained 100 pieces of gold. Then he heard a merchant shouted, "A reward! A reaward to the one who find my leather purse!"

Being an honest man, the beggar came forward and handed the purse to the merchant saying, "Here is your purse. Will you keep your word to give a reward now?"

"Reward?" scoffed the merchant greedily counting the amount of gold. "The purse I dropped had 200 pieces of gold in it. You've already stolen more than the reward I'll give to you.! Go away or I'll tell you to the police."

"I'm an honest man," said the beggar defiantly. "Let's take this matter to the court!" In the court, the judge patiently listened to both sides of the story and said, "I believe you both. Justice is possible! Merchant, you stated that the purse you lost contained 200 pieces of gold. Well, that's a considerable cost. But the purse the beggar found had only 100 pieces of gold. Therefore, it couldn't be the one you lost."

And, with that, the judge gave the purse and all the golds to the beggar.

 

“GOLDEN EGGS”

 

Long time ago a remote village, in central China was inhabited mainly with farmers and hunters.

One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock to flood. He prayed hard to God for help or his family would die of starvation.

Few days later, an old man with long grey beard, passed by his house took pity on him. He gave him a goose and said “ I don’t have any expensive thing to give you and hope this goose will help you to ease your hardship.”

A week later to almost surprise the farmer found and egg in his yard. This was no ordinary egg. It was a golden egg. He was suddenly overcome with joy.

Thereafter, his livelihood had rapidly improved but the farmer had forgotten his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift.

Strangely, the goose only laid one golden egg every six months. The greedy farmer lost his patient and slaughtered his goose thinking there were plenty of golden eggs inside its stomach.

Though he very much regretted for his foolishness, it’s already too late.

 

THE BOY WHO CRIED “WOLF”

There was once a shepherd-boy who kept his flock at a little distance from the village. Once he thought he would play a trick on the villagers and have some fun at their expense. So he ran toward the village crying out, with all his might,

“Wolf! Wolf! Come and help! The wolves are at my lambs!”

The kind villagers left their work and ran to the field to help him. But when they got there the boy laughed at them for their pains; there was no wolf there.

Still another day the boy tried the same trick, and the villagers came running to help and got laughed at again. Then one day a wolf did break into the fold and began killing the lambs. In great fright, the boy ran for help. 

“Wolf! Wolf!” he screamed. “There is a wolf in the flock! Help!”

The villagers heard him, but they thought it was another mean trick; no one paid the least attention, or went near him. And the shepherd-boy lost all his sheep.