Tales Of The Poor Woman

The themes in Tales Of The Poor Woman include wealth, and pride amongst others.

Tales of a poor woman

 

Tales of The Poor Woman

 

In a kingdom far away, there lived a poor woman and a rich woman. Both of them lived opposite each other, but one could see that the rich woman didn’t care about the poor woman at all.

The poor woman’s house was always unkept, she had no decorations, talkless about food in her house. However, the poor woman kept surviving. She was a native soap maker, and to make soap back then, one would need empty palm bunches and some other materials. The only assistance the poor woman had was the help she got from her only daughter. So every day, they would go out to get the materials needed to make the soap, and then after they were done making the soup, they would wait for people from the neighbouring villages to come and buy the native soap. The poor woman and her daughter did this for years, and they survived living on it.

One day, the poor woman and her daughter prepared the soap, but no one came to buy it. They waited for hours, and soon, the poor woman’s daughter became hungry.

“Mama, I am very hungry,” she said while rolling her stomach.

The poor woman could see the hunger in the eyes of her daughter. This troubled her.

“My daughter, I am so sorry, but you know that there is no food in this house. Let us wait a little while longer. I am sure that somebody will come and buy the soap.” So the poor woman and her daughter waited for hours, but still, no one came.

“Mama, no one is coming, and I am very hungry. I feel like I might pass out soon,” the poor woman’s daughter said and fell to the ground from exhaustion and hunger. The poor woman could see the state of her daughter, so she said,

“Okay, why don’t we go to the rich woman’s house and beg for food?”

“The rich woman?!” The poor woman’s daughter said. “That woman is very selfish. I do not think that she will help us.”

“Let us just try. Here, get up,” the poor woman said and stretched forth her hand to support the girl. Once her daughter was up, they walked to the rich woman’s house together.

When they got there, they saw her playing outside with her children. The poor woman was scared of going close to her because she knew how rude the rich woman could be, but her hands were tied. She went closer to them and sought their attention.

“Hello ma,” she whispered, and the rich woman with her children immediately stopped playing to look at her.

“What do you want?” They asked immediately.

“I was wondering if I could get some food for my daughter. She is very hungry,” the poor woman pleaded. The rich woman and her children started laughing at the poor woman and her child. When they were done laughing, they pushed them out of their house.

“Poor woman, do you think we will ever need anything from you?” One of the rich woman’s children said. The poor woman stood at the gate and continued to beg them to give her a little portion of food, but they would not listen, nor did they care.

The poor woman and her daughter returned back home hungry. They felt like they would be hungry forever because they did not have any other means of getting food. As they were approaching their house, they saw someone standing by the road that lead to their house. At first, they couldn’t recognize who the person was, but after looking again, they saw that it was the poor woman’s sister-in-law. The poor woman’s daughter was so happy to see her that she ran to hug her.

“My dear, why have you been crying?” The poor woman’s sister-in-law said as soon as she saw her. The little girl couldn’t say anything until her mother came close. “Why has your daughter been crying?” The woman asked again.

“My dear, why don’t you come in first, and then I will tell you everything,” the poor woman said, and the sister-in-law accepted her invitation. 

When they got inside, the poor woman told her sister-in-law all that had happened. The woman sympathized with her. She then brought out the food she came with. Together they cooked, ate, and went in for the night.

A few weeks later, calamity befell the rich woman. She fell critically sick, and no medicine man could cure her. One day, an old woman directed her children to a very potent medicine man and told them that they would find a solution to their problems there. When the rich woman’s children got to the referred medicine man, the man told them to pay some money and at the same time to bring some empty palm bunch.

At that time, empty palm bunch was very scarce to find, so the rich woman’s children did not know where they would get them. Suddenly, one of them remembered that the poor woman usually uses empty palm bunches to make her native soap. So she told her siblings that they should go and beg the woman for the palm bunch.

When the rich woman’s children got to the poor woman’s house, they told her why they came.

“Ma, we have come to buy some of your palm bunches. Our mother is very sick, and only that palm bunch can save her life.”

The poor woman thought for a while, and then she said, “if you will give me half of your mother’s wealth, then I will give you the palm bunch.”

“Half of her wealth?!” The children exclaimed. “Ma, that is too much. Why not take a quarter?” They asked.

“Look, it’s either you give me half of her wealth, or you kiss your mother goodbye,” the poor woman said and kicked them out of her house.

The rich woman’s children went around the neighbourhood telling the neighbours to help them beg the poor woman to collect a quarter of their mother’s wealth. When the neighbours came to the poor woman, the poor woman told them all what the rich woman and her children did to her, and the neighbours also insisted that the children give the poor woman half of their mother’s wealth.

The children finally agreed and gave the wealth to the poor woman, in return, the poor woman gave them the empty palm bunch to heal their mother.

 

 

Moral lesson

Do not take the good fortune in life for granted. When you are blessed, share the blessings with those in need. 

 

 

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