Tale 1: Abo Khasim & Co:
That was essentially a story referred to as ‘The Three Fools’ .All three inhabitants of the same village who each made his living and sustenance tilling and working his small parcels of land which in most cases was family inheritance.
One day Abo Khasim left at early dawn to tend one of his small parcels of land. Some one hour after sunrise Abo Melhim passed by walking on his way to a neighbouring village. Abo Melhim greeted Abo Khasim and asked him what he planned to grow in his land. Abo Khasim answered telling him that he planned to grow wheat, barley, and chick peas. Abo Khasim asked Abo Melhim where he was going. Abo Melhim answered that he was going to neighbouring village market to buy flock of sheep and goats.
Suddenly heated discussion and argument ensued:
Abo Khasim:‘Your flock of sheep and goats will more than likely trespass onto my land and eat my sprouting, or matured crop before I harvest them’.
Abo Melhim:‘No they would not; I will tell my shepherd, and I myself will ensure they would not’.
Abo Khasim:‘Given the proximity of your land to my land, and your stupid shepherd, and equally stupid sons am going to lose my crop’.
As the argument became more heated and push was becoming shove and each man grappled the other; Abo Arsalan, a neighbour roamed up the hill and stumbled upon the two. As he came closer on his mule carrying flour he screamed at both of them insisting they calm down and tell him why they were threatening to cause each other serious harm. As Abo Arslan got the full story he told both men to take deep breath, calm down and to wait for him. Both agreed to momentarily put their differences aside and await for Abo Araslan to return to them. Within less than an hour Abo Arslan was back with his mule. This time without the two bags of flour. As he got close to both men Abo Arslan took one of the two empty bags from his shoulder strap turned it upside down and came close to Abo Khasim shook the bag and said:
‘Abo Khasim, hear me well your head is empty like this flour bag’, at the same time ensuring that some of the flour dust were up Abo Khasim nostrils’. Abo Khasim opened his mouth both speechless, and stunned as he watched Abo Araslan move in the direction of Abo Melhim.
Repeating the same performance Abo Araslan got close to Abo Melhim took the other empty flour bag turned it upside down and shook it ensuring some of the flour dust were up Abo Melhim nostrils and said: ‘Abo Melhim your head is empty like this flour bag’. Abo Melhim raised his eye brows, shook his head stunned and speechless.
There was total silence for few minutes as the three men looked at each other. Abo Melhim took a deep breath and asked Abo Arslan where he had emptied the flour bags. The three men walked to the river and looked downstream at a distance where the river flowed into a puddle and saw it was all white!!
There you have it -The Three Fools.
Tale 2: The Crafty Village Milkman:
Abo Assaf had 5 cows, 10 goats, and 3 sheep. He was known in the village as the ‘Milkman’ supplying milk and yoghurt to two local shops. Abo Assaf also did a milk run to few neighbouring houses. What they didn't know was that he was a crafty fellow that mixed his milk with water to make more money. He was also an opinionated individual who often volunteered his opinion not only about village matters but also about local politics, world leaders, socialism, capitalism, Karl Marx, Hagel, the Russian Tsar, and Lenin. People often avoided the village square when Abo Assaf was narrating his opinion.
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| One particular village man, Abo Kanj, had axe to grind against Abo Assaf and was privy to one of Abo Assaf’ secret to do with milk. The chagrin of Abo Kanj stemmed from deal to do with cutting two big trees and selling the timber from those two trees to village neighbours who would use in their fire places, and fire stoves in winter. The deal was Abo Assaf will use his chain saw, timber cutting tools, chop down and cut the two trees ready to sell. As the trees were on Abo Kanj's land, they would split the profit of the firewood. Abo Assaf cut down the tree but the firewood money never came in the mail, Abo Assaf did however, send a messenger to Abo Kanj house with a sealed envelope. What was in the sealed envelope was a bill for the cost of replacing two purported broken axes and a saw blade that Abo Assaf claimed to having taken place during the task. There was also a hand written note to the effect that he will forgive Abo Kanj for the labour and toil involved in chopping down the two monstrous trees! |
For a while Abo Kanj managed to control his anger and avoided Abo Assaf often cursing his name and grinding his teeth. He thought of reporting Abo Assaf to the village Mughtar, and the village Lord Mayor but decided not to.
Three weeks after receiving the letter Abo Khanj heard that there was big commotion and something had happened in the village square. The next day Abo Khanj went to inquire. He was told that Abo Assaf came from the field to the village crying and pulling his hair, cursing his luck and the disaster that had befell him and that Abos Assaf was devastated and critically ill.
What had taken place was that whilst Abo Assaf’ cows, and goats were in the meadows close to the river, a dam had burst upstream, the river flooded and washed down his cows and goats few miles downstream drowning all. He decided to visit Abo Assaf at his house. Abo Assaf was in bed as Abo Kanj knocked. Abo Assaf’, eldest son, Assaf, opened the door and led Abo Kanj to his father’s bedroom. Seeing Abo Kanj, Abo Assaf lifted his body up and said:
Abo Assaf:‘I always thought you are honest man. Are you coming to pay me the money for the broken axes and the saw blade’?
Raising his eye brows and doing his best to supress his delight, Abo Kanj took a deep breath and said:
Abo Kanj:‘The water that you mixed with the milk over the years accumulated and filled the dam upstream, burst and drowned your cows and your goats and washed them to the sea with their adders full of milk.
Abo Assaf:‘That is exactly what my three boys told me’.
Abo Kanj:‘ I am delighted to know you have honest children and there is a hope yet for this neighbourhood’.
Tale 3: A Foxy Tale
At any one time most people in villages normally have their own small parcel of land from which they get their olives, almonds, grapes and figs. They would also own small patches, the odd 100 or 200 meters, in which they till, grow their own vegetables with the odd citrus trees. They would also have few chicken and the odd rooster. In most case the chicken make their home in a basement under the house or in especially built hen house. A dog or two normally keep the foxes away.
In odd cases, a crafty fox manages to befriend a dog whilst another fox helps himself to one or two chooks. In one particular case the fox managed to make a deal with a guard dog. The deal was the dog will lure the chickens a distance away from the hen house and see off the fox as he takes the helpless chickens a safe distance away. To keep this friendship with the dog the fox decided to impart and enlighten the dog with some his foxy wisdom and told him the following tale:
One day the fox decided to go and see some fellow creatures that make up the zoological kingdom. The fox had great joy telling his dog friend how much he enjoyed himself chatting with other animals especially telling them about his friendship with the hens dog guard. The dog was happy having great time listening to his fox friend narrations till he told him the story about conversation he had with the lion who was resting outside his den:
Lion:‘Hello my friend, you are looking well, and I was watching you talking to some friends here’.
Fox:‘I love to come and have a chat but I realised that am running late I have to see my dog friend’.
Lion:‘Am sure your dog friend can wait, please come and enter my den and let us chat’.
Fox:‘Love to go and have a chat in your den and I will do that next time. Please tell me why the footprint of all the paws are unidirectional. They all appears to be heading towards inside the den but not a single paw appears to having come back. Come to think of it am in a hurry and I got to run’.
Listening to this tale, the dog put his paws over his ears yelped few times as if in agony and walked away disgusted with himself. He then realised there were no more chickens left for this crafty fox.
