Abu
Nuwasi Sells His House
A Kenyan Fable
Abu Nuwasi built a two-story house for himself.
He decided to live in the bottom and sold the top story to a merchant.
After some years, he made the decision to move out of his house
and live in a far-a-way town.
His hope was that the merchant who rented the upper
story of his house would agree to buy the lower half so that Abu
would have the means to build a new home elsewhere. But the greedy
merchant refused Abu Nuwasi’s offer. The merchant hoped that
if Abu could not find a buyer, he would simply leave anyway and
the merchant would get the entire house for free.
After trying again to talk the merchant into buying
the house with no success, Abu went to town. He returned with a
dozen men whom he left outside and then went upstairs to talk to
the merchant. “I have come to inform you that since I was
unable to sell my part of the house I have hired some men to help
me destroy it. I just wanted to let you know so that you could do
what is needed to save your part.”
Needless to say, the greedy merchant
changed his mind and decided to purchase the lower story from Abu
Nuwasi at his original asking price and Abu was able to leave the
town as planned. |
