The Parable (Short Story)
by Ajay Kumar
Once upon a time, there was a Selfish Man. He liked everything to belooking for them he will send for the girl.
his own. He could not share his belongings with anyone, not even his
friends or the poor.
One day, the man lost thirty gold coins. He went to his friend's house
and told him how he lost his gold coins. His friend was a kind man.
As his friend's daughter was coming from an errand she found thirty
gold coins, when she arrived home, she told her father what she had
found.
The girl's father told her that the gold coins belong to his friend and
he sent for him. When the selfish man arrived, he told him how his
daughter had found his thirty gold coins and handed then to him.
After counting the gold coins the man said that ten of them was missing
and had been taken by the girl as he had forty gold coins. He further
commented that he will recover the remaining amount from him (the
girl's father). But the father refused.
The man left the gold coins and went to the court and informed the
judge there about what had taken place between him and the girl's
father.
The judge sent for the girl and her father, and when they arrived asked
the girl how many gold coins she found. She replied thirty gold coins.
The Judge that asked the selfish man how many gold coins he lost and he
answered forty gold coins.
The judge then told the man that the gold coins did not belong to him
because the girl found thirty and not forty as he claimed to have lost and then told the girl to take the gold coins and that if anybody is
The judge told the man that if anybody reports that they have found
forty gold coins he will send for him. It was then that the man
confessed that he lied and that he lost thirty gold coins but the judge did not
listen to him.
...I chose this short story, because it is a perfect example of how honesty can be rewarded, and how dishonesty can backfire. Throughout the story, the girl is honest and does the right thing by returning the selfish man's 30 gold coins, but then the man tries to get ten extra coins from her by saying that there were originally 40. The selfish man had already told his friend that he was missing 30 coins, not 40, "One day, the man lost thirty gold coins. He went to his friend's house and told him how he lost his gold coins. His friend was a kind man." (Kumar, The Parable, 2) So when the selfish man demanded the ten more coins, his friend refused and they went to court. The girl was rewarded for her honesty and was given the gold coins to keep, while the selfish man got nothing, which is when he decided to tell the truth and admit that he lied, but he still did not get his coins back. In the end, the selfish man got what he deserved, which also taught him a lesson about honesty. Although Honesty AND dishonesty both are shown throughout the story, I believe that this story is more of an example of how honesty pays in the end. The man who lied about the amount of coins he had ended up with nothing, and the girl who was honest about her discovery got to keep the coins she had found. My flash fiction and this story have a lot in common because in both stories one character gets rewarded for being honest and one character gets punished for being dishonest. Both Julius from my flash fiction, and the girl from this story didn't plan on being rewarded for being honest. Julius was just playing fairly and the girl was simply doing the right thing. This goes to show that dishonesty is present all around us, but it is not the best policy and can come with many consequences and downfalls, where as honesty can come with many rewards...
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