the force of destiny

Here is a tale told by my mother since I was a little kid. It is about a very poor family consisted of two brothers and their mother. They are surviving in a life full of challenges. Hence, they surrender and take a choice of robbery.

Once upon a time, an old woman brought up two orphans of her own. One day she found herself old and unable to work.  Hence, she could not keep food on the table for her two young kids. The two kids are a bit different. Rtal is the older and wiser tough son. However Nas Rtal is the younger son. He is characterized by his humble personality. He is humble in everything: his dressing, way of thinking, and his ambitions. He is seeking a shelter where he could live; and a job whereby he could fend for his family.

Rtal is a very handsome, intelligent and ambitious person. He believes in equal opportunity. He loves his mother and his young brother. He is keen on politics. That’s the reason why he is all the time up to date. He knows everything that happens in the castle of the tyrant king. He tried in vain to get a place in the castle. He believed that all the roads to the king’s treasure are possible. He convinced his smart family that the treasure of the king is the only open window to a better life. It is only the king’s treasure; it is the treasure of the whole community that is deprived from the necessities of living.

Every day, the young robbers planned their way of breaking into the castle. They study the plan carefully more than once. Hence they succeeded in looting what to eat for more than a week.  They always take a small amount in everything in order not to get the attention of the guards.

A durable drought came along. The treasure, food, and many products were rare and some were stagnant. The continuous looting of the young brothers affected on the amount of the wealth. Hence, the guards felt something went wrong inside the immune castle. They told the king about the problem. He ordered them to make a consecutive vigilance but in vain. It seemed that some of the guards usually kept falling asleep while in vigilance.

The king lost confidence in most of the guards. He ordered his counselor to provide him with a decisive step. He wanted to take the necessary measurements.  The very old wise man in the castle said: Your majesty! The guards found out that there is a whole in the treasure room. It could be wise if we put a very large jar of pure honey by the whole”.

The king asked in a furious way: A jar of honey? What for? To make it ready for the rubbers again!?

“No! Your majesty! It is meant to be a trap. The rubbers will for sure come again sooner or later. When they will come back they fall in the jar and then we could catch them easily” answered the old man.

The king was impressed: “that sounds wise and good!”  He added:” Give it a try.”

The guards did as the old man say. The two brothers came again obliviously but with a plan beforehand to loot what to eat. Nas Rtal came first and then fall in the trap as an easy prey. Rtal strived to rescue him but he couldn’t do so. Unfortunately, the guards’ time of vigilance was near. The brothers run out of time. Rtal had no choice but to do what Nas rtal suggested. He suggested cutting his head so that no one could recognize the body of the thief.  Nas Rtal was in big dilemma. He didn’t know whether to cut his brothers head and free himself or to stay there and got arrested by the guards. Eventually, Rtal looked carefully and for long period in his son before closed his eyes and to heat him. He couldn’t heat him. He hugged him and kept crying for a while. Then he heard steps of the guards coming. He heat Nas Rtal in a sudden sharp way. There was no cry no shout. He took his brothers head between his hands and cried with a voiceless sound. He was fallen on his knees grabbing the head. Rtal hear a voice that made him conscious for a moment. He run and went out of the castle.

When the guard arrived near the treasure room- after a pause of changing service- he found a body of young person without a head. He was astonished. He cried out to the other guards that come quickly with the king. The king was about a big puzzle. He found the thief but dead and without head. He couldn’t recognize him. Hence, he could not take revenge neither on him nor on his family. He ordered the old wise man to seek for a solution.

The wise old man ordered the guards to name a list of looted products. They had to say the amount robbed of every product. They did it in a very quick and urgent way. The list was as follow:

-Small amount of honey.

-Small amount of tea.

 -Small amount of sugar.

 -Small amount of wheat.

-A small amount of “dhan n3am”.

-Some eggs.

-Some butter.

-Some milk.

After the old wise man read the list, he laughed. The king was disturbed,: what’s funny old man? “

The old man answered: the amount that is robbed Sir is not that big!

The king said in furious way: “I know that it is not that large. But who can steal a small amount could still the whole wealth.”

The old man showed agreement by nodding his head then he replied:” You are right. But it seems that this thief is just a poor person.”

“How could you know” the king asked

“It is clear; it is clear sir from the list of the things he robbed. It seemed as if this person is seeking what to eat and not what to own.” The wise man said

The king furiously: How could we arrest him. I cannot wait. I just want to know who he is.”

He ordered the guards to go out. The he asked the man with a silent voice: I suspect the guards. Don’t you think that some of them could do it?”

The old man said:”I don’t think so Your Majesty. Keep no doubt in your men.

“I don’t know but I am losing confidence in them anyway.” The king replied

There was a sharp small silence then the man said: Your Majesty! Here is what to do. You are going to send some of the guards to look for the family that has Dhan N3am. Then he will bring it here.”

“Why? “The king said.

“Dhan n3am is a very rare thing and it exists only in the castle and in some merchants’ houses. The poor family who has it must be the robber.”

The king liked the idea. But he couldn’t send the guards. Then he decided to send a humble woman who appeared to be like a poor one and in need of help. She went from home to home seeking for Dhan N3am. She finely found it in the house of the orphans. She said to the mother that the king has become sick and that he is in need of Dhan N3am. The kind mother, with no hesitation, gave an amount of Dhan N3am to the woman aspiring some bless from the king. No sooner had the woman went down stairs, that she met Rtal coming back home. He suspected the woman who was not a good deceiver.

 Rtal noticed something strange in the woman’s way of speaking. He asked her about she was holding. She said that the king was very sick and he was really in need of dhan n3am. She couldn’t find it in any other place than the home of Rtal. Rtal said: “did my mother give you a lot?”

The woman replied: “no she just gave what I need”

Rtal said:” no she must give you much more than that! It is not about a layman it is about the king!”

Rtal took the woman’s hand. He told her to give her much more. But when he came back, he cut her head and killed her. Fearing from being caught, Rtal buried the woman in the house. 

The long day has passed and no news about the woman nor about Dhan n3am. The king got furious and sent people to look for the old woman. After they searched for a long time, they couldn’t find her. The king asked for the old wise man to support him with his cunning and tricky plans. The old man provided a new nice idea. He said that there is no trace of new grave in the town. Hence if the woman is killed she must be buried inside a house. That’s why the guards went out under the king’s order to search inside the houses for any stink bad smell. The guards went from house to house. They searched in every doubtful house. Eventually, they find a very stink smell in the house of Rtal. As the guards came to arrest Rtal he claimed that the stink smell came from his dead donkey. He killed his donkey when he killed the woman. Instead of being caught, Rtal fled again. People helped him to take the donkey out of the house.

It seemed that everybody lost hope and there were no signs of the thieves. The old man kept thinking for hours before the meeting of the king with the people of the town. After a while, he said to the king another plan that could succeed. The body of Nas Rtal- Rtal’s brother- was about to be hanged in the threshold of the castle. The family’s dead body could not help seeing their family member died and hanged in front of them.

After he heard the plan of the old man, Rtal went directly home. He told his mother about it. He knew his mother couldn’t resist if it happen to see her boy. Hence, he told her to take a donkey loaded with many jars. When she would arrive near her dead boy, He would break the jars so that she could burst into tears.

The mother went on her son’s footsteps and plans. When she saw her boy she couldn’t stop tears. She had started crying before Rtal broke her jars. A guard came along the way to ask her. But Rtal succeeded to break her jars skillfully. As the guard asked her about the cause of crying, she said that she lost her merchandise because her jars were just broken. Finally the old man’s wiseness is useless.

The king had only one councilor. It was the old wise man. He was the person who provides people with the solutions to their problems. However, Rtal is the almighty who always succeeded in defeating him. The old man had another suggestion to the king. He suggested to make all the young people of the town to sleep in one place altogether.  The robber may dream of everything he did in the day. He may retell everything happened to him. Anyone who heard the dreamer must mark him in order to distinguish it from others.

The night had come. Rtal made necessary tricks to be awake all the night. However, he felled asleep suddenly. As he slept, he started discussing as if he is speaking with his little brother. The old man recognized him and he cut his hair to mark him.

It was 5 o’clock. Rtal was accustomed to waking up early. He found out that his hair was cut. He thought about the plan of the old man. He was then the suspect. He decided to cut the hair of all people but the old man. When everybody woke up, they discovered that they lost their hair but the wise man. Hence, they arrested him and accused him of deceiving, robbery and lying to the community. Finally, Rtal made it again and the wise man sentenced to death.

As the crowd gathered to see the death penalty, Rtal was running to the old man shouting. All people were astonished. They wondered why Rtal was against the execution of the old man. When he arrived to the scaffold, the king interrogated him. He said that the old man was innocent and that he was responsible of all the robberies.

The king: “What are you trying to say?”

Rtal said:”I am the person who has stolen what you have lost, Majesty.”

The crowd was shouting and yelling on him. Then, he continued:” I am not proud of what I have done, or of what I am doing. I have stolen what my family and I are in need of. We lived a tough life. I have to confess that we are in need of what to eat. My aim was just to keep food on the table for my brother and mother.”

The king was astonished with the sour truth. He liked he intelligence and his cunningness. He eventually decided to recruit him as his councilor and assistant in the castle.