Japanese parable There was a custom in the old days: as soon as old people turned sixty years old, they were left to die in the distant mountains. This is what the prince ordered: there is no need to feed extra mouths.
The old people greeted each other when they met:
- How time flies! It’s time for me to go to Mount Obasute this year.
- Is that so? So, let's go together, and I have to go.
But this is what happened one day at dawn.
Two brothers took turns carrying their old parent along a steep mountain path. The older brother is dragging a heavy load on his back and from time to time he hears some kind of crash behind him.
He looked around and asked:
-What is our father doing?
“Yes, he’s playing around with nothing,” answered the younger brother. — Breaks branches and throws them on the road.
- Father, why are you breaking branches? Right, for notes? Do you want to run away when we go home?
The old man answered like this:
In the distant mountains I will mark the path with branches. Why, for whom? For the sake of my beloved children, who leave me. And then, in silence, he continued to break branches and throw them onto the path.
Obasute hides in the very depths of the mountains. The brothers arrived there in the evening, to tell the truth, with a light heart, but it was hard on their backs.
They sat the father under a large tree and began to discuss which road to choose.
- Going back the same way is boring.
- It’s true, we won’t see anything new.
- Why think for a long time? Let's go down the mountain wherever we look. Let's go to the village anyway.
And so they did. But the unfamiliar path started winding, went and went down, and suddenly began to go up. And it was already night. The howling of wolves and the hooting of owls could be heard all around... The brothers were brave at first, and then they were completely scared.
“Let’s quickly return to where we left our father and find the right path.” “He left notes along the way,” the younger brother pleaded.
That's when the brothers first realized how much their father loved them, how much he cared for them.
- Father! Father! - they began to shout at the top of their voices and ran back.
The moon rose and illuminated the dark thicket. They see an old man sitting motionless under a tree. The brothers sank to the ground next to him and took a breath.
- What happened to you, my children?
- Well, we wanted to go back along a different road. But we are lost. We ask you to come back with us and show us the right path.
The father pointed his finger down the path:
“Here, follow it, I threw branches along the road.” And I'll stay here.
- No, no, don't say that. Let us take you home. Come what may, we will never leave you again! - the brothers began to beg.
- Unreasonable words! Whether you like it or not, you must leave me in the mountains: there is a strict princely decree for this. Those who disobey will face severe punishment.
But the brothers understood how their parents’ hearts loved them, and stood firm on their position. They carried their father against his will.
At home, the brothers hastened to dig a deep basement under the floor and hid their father there. Every day they brought food to their father and talked with him.
More than a year passed like this. Suddenly, on behalf of the prince, a decree was announced: “I order you to make a rope from the ashes, if such a craftsman can be found.” The people in the princely domains were completely exhausted, they tried this and that, but to no avail: no one could make a rope from the ashes. The brothers told their old father about this.
- But it’s a simple matter. Soak the straw in salt water and twist it into a rope, and when it dries, burn it on fire,” the old man advised.
The brothers did as he said, and indeed, they made a rope from the ashes.
The prince praised the brothers, but gave them a new task:
- If you are so cunning, thread the thread through a large sea shell, so that it goes through all the curls inside.
The brothers were saddened and hurried to their father for advice.
“That’s how it is,” the father thought about it, and after thinking it over, he said to his sons: “Bring an ant, and you bring a long thread and a handful of rice.”
The sons brought what they were told. The old man tied a thread to the ant and let it into the depths of the twisted shell, drilling a hole at the top. Then he turned the open side of the sink towards the light and poured in some rice. The ant soon crawled out to the bait, and on the way, he pulled the thread through all the curls.
The prince was very pleased:
“I wanted to know how smart the people in my domain are.” Now my soul is calm. But tell me, did you figure it out yourself, or did someone else teach you?
The brothers told everything without hiding.
- Truly old people are a storehouse of wisdom! - the prince exclaimed and immediately gave a decree so that from now on the old people would not be left in the mountains to die. And he gave rich gifts to his brothers.
The brothers returned home joyful. Since then, without hiding, without any fear, they kept their father in the house and took care of him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru