Tit for Tat

A Child's Story

Juha's wife had a large copper cooking pot which she prized in her kitchen above all things. And Juha kept thinking of getting hold of it. Often he said to himself:

"This is a precious pot. If I could sell it, I could buy many things with its price." And Juha set about devising a trick to get hold of it, until, after long thought, he hit upon one.

The next day, when Juha's wife took the pot down from her kitchen shelf, she found inside it a small pot of the very same shape. She stared wide-eyed in astonishment and surprise, and called Juha to come and see for himself what had happened.

Said Fatima, Juha's wife:

"Where did this new little pot come from? I have never seen it before — do you know anything about it?"

Juha answered: "God be praised! The pot has given birth. Don't you think it a beautiful baby?" Fatima looked at her husband with doubt and suspicion and said:

"I suppose you are right, though I never before heard of such a thing happening."

On the second day Juha seized the chance of his wife's going to the market, took the large pot from the shelf, and left the small pot in its place. Before midday he had sold the pot and spent most of its price on himself.

When Fatima came back to the house she found Juha sitting beside the door, looking grieved and downcast.

Seeing the pallor of his face, she cried out at him: "What has happened?"

He answered: "A great calamity has happened, my dear, as you shall see for yourself. The big pot passed away while you were out of the house, and I suffered agonies consoling the little pot and arranging the funeral."

Then Juha went on:

"I buried the departed pot in the bottom of the valley — but worse still, my dear: I had hardly turned my back when a hyena came, stole the corpse, and ate it."

Fatima said, shaking her head: "Listen. I know that pots do not die."

Said Juha: "My dear, you believed me when I told you that this late lamented pot had given birth — did you not? Well then, that proves what I said, my dear; for pots, like the children of Adam, are born, and live, and die."

Fatima said, deliberately: "Now I understand. Alas for the poor departed pot!"

When night fell, Fatima slipped out of the house, took Juha's donkey out of the stable, led it to an abandoned vineyard, tied it up there, and then

returned to her house.

The next morning she came in to Juha in his bed, weeping and wailing, and said: "What a disaster! A dreadful accident has happened. I had scarcely brought the donkey out of the stable when a great falcon swooped down on it from the sky, sank its talons into it, and flew off with it. Alas for the donkey! What a great misfortune!"

Juha glared at his wife and said: "This is empty talk that no mind can accept — how could a falcon fly off with a donkey?"

She answered, wiping away her tears: "If pots can die and hyenas can eat them, then anything is possible."

Said Juha, feigning gentleness: "Never mind, my dear. I shall buy you a new pot; perhaps that will move the falcon to give us back the donkey."

Said his wife: "That may well be — but if you want to be sure of getting the donkey back, you must get up and hurry off at once to buy the pot."