Once upon a
time, there was an average man, Ben a farmer, who believed in the importance
attached to giving. Whenever he was giving out from the little he had, he would
do it wholeheartedly. Even, people around him used to make jest of him because
of his state of insufficiency. While Ben did not look at their side but
continued with what he was doing to put smiles on the faces of the less privileged.
Many a times,
his wife fought with him on his candid philanthropy that was adversely
affecting his home but he used to tell her to be patient and he knew what he
was doing with the hope that God in heaven would cater and provide for their
immediate and futuristic needs. That's how Ben was living his life.
One day, the
king instructed the town crier to go around and tell everyone in the village to
assemble at his palace in the sunset time this day for an important message. The
town crier did as he was ordered and emphasized that the domesticated rats
should hear and tell the bush rats! Everybody must assemble in the palace as
ordered! Then the town crier went his way to the palace after delivering the
message.
In the
evening, as ordered by the king, everybody had assembled in the palace waiting
patiently for the king because no one could dare the order of the king. Few
minutes later, the king with his queens came out from the palace to relay the
message he had for them so that they could quickly disperse to their various
abodes. He said; I was expecting august visitors from our neighboring villages
and i needed someone that could voluntarily donate all his or her farm produce
in the farm for him: villagers were looking at their faces because they did not
expect this kind of selfish request from their king. The weather of the palace
was quietly calm, suddenly! Ben rose up from where he was seating and
volunteered to donate all his farm produce to the king.
The other
villagers including his wife were seriously staring at him as a foolish man not
knowing the king was testing their loyalty and candid generosity. Then the king
asked him for the last time if he had finally made up his mind and he said;
yes. The King quickly stood up and said he would divide all his belongings into
two equal halves and give one part to Ben for his generosity and giving
spirit. Immediately, the king rushed
into the palace's hut. All the villagers present in the palace were seriously
astonished for what they heard from their king. And they all went to their
various abodes. Even Ben could not believe what the king said but later
re-thought that the king would never assemble the entire villagers for such an expensive
joke.
Two days
later, the king's servants from the palace brought many baskets of king's
belongings to Ben's hut as promised. That was how Ben and his family reaped the
fruit of his giving and became prosperous and famous in this village.
