Once upon a time, there existed a city in which there were only two parallel streets.
One day, a person crossed from one street to the other, and residents of the other street noticed that his eyes were full of tears.
“Someone has probably died on the other street!” – one of them cried, and everyone started crying. The rumor grew and grew, and the residents of the other street were soon convinced that their neighbors had some gross misfortune.
They were uncomfortable asking questions, and so, even though no one really knew what had happened, everyone believed that the neighbors were in some kind of big trouble. So they all cried loudly.
In time, the other side heard the loud cries from the neighbors, and started to panic. “A war probably started on the other street… and it will soon reach us” they said. All citizens decided to immediately leave to protect their lives from the imminent disaster.
When the people who were crying loudly noticed that the other street was empty – they got scared too and decided to ran away as well.
And so, both communities left their homes and ran in different directions.
Centuries have passed since then. There is nothing but ruins left of that city.
And on two far sides of the former city, there are villages, the inhabitants of which pass, from generation to generation, the legend of how once the whole population of the doomed city had to leave it in order to save itself from a huge disaster.
The real story was that, before passing from one street to the other street, the man with the teary eyes – well, he was peeling onions.
The Lesson
- We need to communicate more often. Only then we’ll have no misunderstandings, and stop believing in the wrong things.
Source
- Idriz Shah. Fairy tales of dervishes. M., 1996.
