The other day, I happened to read an inspirational story about an old man, three sons and 17 camels as only asset of the family. Consequent to his old age illness, the father died leaving behind his will in a sealed envelope. After his death, three brothers eagerly opened up the will.
The family had 17 camels as asset. As per will, the eldest brother was to get half of the camels, the middle one was entitled for 1/3rd of camels and the youngest brother would receive 1/9th of the total camels available. Finding it difficult to divide 17 by 2, 3 and 9, they started quarrelling each other. However, soon good sense prevailed and they decided to seek a wise man’s intervention.
The wise man patiently read the will. After giving considerable thought, he added his only camel to this lot taking tally to 18 camels. Now he started working on deceased old man’s will. Half of the 18 worked out to 9, so he gave 9 camels to the eldest brother. Next he calculated 1/3rd of 18 which worked out to 6 camels which were given to the middle brother. Finally, he found that 1/9th of 18 works out to 2 and therefore 2 camels were given to the youngest brother. This left behind only one Camel which the wise man retained as his original contribution to this lot and three brothers happily went home with their share.
Now let’s see the moral that this small story carries. When faced with a problem, the first and foremost requisite is to have belief that an amicable solution can be found to satisfaction of all. Thereafter, efforts should be made to honestly look for a common ground or approach for resolving the problem. Instead, if be become short-sighted and greedy, we won’t be able to reach any commonality and consequent solution.
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