"You must go to school," the shepherd told his son.
So the son went.
The first lesson was arithmetic.
"What is five minus three?" asked the teacher.
"I don't know," said the boy.
"Five minus one?"
Again the boy shook his head.
The teacher knew the boy's father was a shepherd, so he said to the boy gently, "How about this: what if you have five sheep, and one sheep goes out through a hole in the fence. How many sheep would be left?"
"None!" said the boy confidently. "When one sheep goes out, all the others will soon follow."
Inspired by: "The Shepherd Boy at School" in When the world began: Stories collected in Ethiopia by Elizabeth Laird, 2000.
Notes: You can read the original story online.
No comments:
Post a Comment