A folktale about a boy who has to make a choice about who his father is. Do genetics trump kindness?
There was once a man who had the profession of digging out ground squirrels. One day the man brought his son with him to work so that he could learn his father’s trade and eventually follow in his footsteps. The father told his son the guard the hole while he dug, this would cause the squirrel to come out where the son was and then he could catch it. Just as the father said, the squirrel came up out of the hole but the son didn’t catch him, he let the squirrel go. In the father’s anger he hit his son over the head with the shovel, knocking him out.
Later that evening the son of the squirrel digger awoke as an Arab strolled through the area. The Arab took pity on the boy, for he had no children of his own and brought him to his home. The Arab bathed him, dressed him in fine linens and nursed him back to health.
It was common place in this region that the sons of the rich merchants would race their horses at the local track. The Arab brought out a beautiful horse and gave it to the boy and told him to do whatever he saw the other boys at the track do with their horses. The sons of the rich merchants were very upset at this new comer who was apparently better than them at racing and had no obvious pedigree. The rich merchants told their sons to test the boy for they knew that he had been adopted by the Arab. They told their sons to give away their horse and see what this boy did. The next day the sons of the rich merchants gave away their horses and just as the Arab had told him, the boy did what his peers did.
The next day the sons of the rich merchants were told to kill their expensive new horses before they come home. The boy again copied the sons of the rich merchants and killed his new horse as well. After this they accepted the boy as the Arab’s son and he was allowed into their group.
A few days later during a Muslim festival, as part of the festivities all of the youth rode their beautifully decorated horses in a parade through the streets of town. Of course, the Arab’s adopted son was among them. While riding in the parade the biological father of the boy saw his son in the procession amongst all of the other rich boys and ran out to him.
“Get down from there!” Yelled the squirrel digger “You do not belong there, while you were being idle one of your brothers has been prosperous in killing squirrels!”
Seeing the scene before him the Arab rushed in and asked if this could be taken somewhere less public. He gave the man back his son, two horses, a cloak and a bag of gold coins but he asked that the man and his son ride with him out in the bush that evening.
That evening they arrived out at the bush and immediately the Arab gave a sword to the boy and said “Strike down either me or you biological father!”
Who should he kill? The Arab who gave him everything that he wanted and treated him with kindness or the man who initially gave him life but treated him with cruelty?
