|
AN IMPORTANT
LESSON
Many years ago a farmer and his six
sons lived in Oromia, about fifty kilometers from
Ambo. The farmer, whose name was Gurmessa, was unhappy.
His sons refused to work. Every day Gurmessa went
out to his fields, but his sons stayed at home. They
slept until the middle of the morning. Sometimes they
went to visit a neighbor. They wanted to spend money,
but they didn't want to earn money.
Gurmessa was an old man. One day he
became ill. He lay in bed thinking about his farm.
The fields were ready for plowing. The rains were
going to begin in a few weeks. Gurmessa was too weak
to plow the fields himself. His sons were too lazy
to do the work. Gurmessa was unhappy.
The doctor came to examine Gurmessa.
After the examination, he looked at the doctor. The
doctor told him that his illness was serious.
Gurmessa knew that he was going to die
soon. He was not afraid of death. But knew that his
sons were not ready to be farmers. Before he died,
he wanted to teach his sons that work was important.
The next morning he called his sons. They stood around
the bed and waited for their father to speak. He began
to speak slowly, in a weak voice.
“My sons,” he said, “I am an old man.
The doctor says that I am very ill. I know that I
am going to die soon.” He stopped to rest. He was
very weak and tired.
“When I die, you will find my wealth
in the fields,” he told his sons.
The oldest son asked his father, “In
which field will we find the gold?” Gurmessa said
nothing, and the sons left the room.
A few days later Gurmessa died. The
sons wanted to find their father's wealth. They decided
to look in all the fields. They took all the tools
they had, and began to dig. They dug in every field
of their farm. After a few days they finished digging,
but they didn't find the gold. They didn't know what
to do.
As he looked at their fields, the oldest
brother saw that it was all plowed. He said to his
brothers, “The fields are plowed. We have no gold,
so we must plant teff.” They all went out
to the fields again. Soon teff was planted
in all the fields.
A few months later, the teff was
ripe. The six brothers went out and harvested it.
Then they took it to the market. They had a lot of
teff to sell because the brothers had plowed
well when they were looking for the gold. When they
sold the teff, they earned a lot of money.
Then they understood what their father said. They
found his wealth. The wealth in the fields was teff.
|
