Moral Story
Being a miser won’t help. Learn to share
By Auntie Stella
O
nce upon a time, there lived a wealthy business man called Juma. He owned a shop and was very rich but he was also a miser. He did not like to spend any of his money, not even on himself. He did not even spend on feeding and dressing his wife and children. He did not even make any offerings to God in the church and everybody knew about it and they gave him nicknames. One day, as he was walking to his shop, he came across a sweet shop. The owner of the shop was frying eggs and the aroma spread all around. Juma was hungry and felt like eating some eggs. He decided to spend a few coins on the eggs. But seeing some of his friends standing near the shop, he gave up the idea of buying the eggs as he did not want to share them with his friends. He thought of taking the eggs home but this meant he would have to share them with his family members. He decided to instead, go to a nearby bush and eat the eggs there. As Juma was feasting in the bush, a man who looked so much like him entered the gates of the palace. The man went to the king and said, “King, I am a wealthy merchant. I have come to seek your permission to give away part of my possessions in charity to the poor”. The people at the palace court were surprised to hear this. Everybody knew him to be a miser. The king was however happy that Juma had changed his ways so he gave
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THE SEED - VOL 25, No. 8 AUGUST 2013
him permission to share the wealth. He permitted Juma to do as he desired. The man then came out of the palace and invited poor people to his shop to get a share of his wealth. Next, he went to Juma’s house and gave one thousand gold coins to his wife. He said to her, “Go and buy some good ornaments and clothes for yourself and the children”. She was surprised at this change in her husband’s attitude. He had never been this generous with her. She happily hurried to the market to buy the clothes and jewels. By now, the poor people had arrived at Juma’s house. The duplicate of Juma allowed them to take whatever they wanted. He also gave them money. In the meantime, the real Juma returned from the bush. He was surprised to see a crowd in front of his house. He started running toward his house to find out what was happening. Just then, he saw some men carrying away his furniture. By now, he had reached his doorstep and was surprised to see a man who looked like his duplicate at the door. The man was distributing gold coins to the poor people. All his hard earned money was being given away. He became furious. He ran to the palace and told the king about the man who was giving away his belongings to poor people. The king came with Juma to his house. The king asked the stranger who he was and the man insisted he was Juma. He reminded the king that he had gone to the