The Hunter and His Three Dogs by Olawale Aina - HTML preview

The fastest versus the faithful

Once upon a time the king of a vast kingdom invited the best athletes from his kingdom to compete in a grace race. The winner will receive a generous sack of gold as his price. The race was to begin at the gate of the city, make a wide circle round the country side, towards the city to the finish line in the courtyard of the king's castle. Many runners came from all through the kingdom and lined up at the city gate to compete for the sack of gold. At the kking's command, the runners started from the city and raced through the country side.

When the runners approached the city gate some hours later, they found a huge pile of blocks blocking their way through the  gate.

Most of the runners pushed and crawled their way over the pile of rocks and on into the court yard. But one of the runners refused to join in the fray. He chose instead to begin moving the rocks out of the way for the slower runners far behind. At the bottom of these piles of rocks he found a heavy sack. He picked it up and raced towards the finish line; last. "Your Majesty," he cried, "I found this sack buried beneath the rocks that were piled at the city gate. What shall I do with it?"

The king replied, "that is the sack of gold that belongs to the winner of the race. Since you are the winner you can keep it". The other runners began to murmur, 'but your majesty,' they said, 'he didn't win the race, he came in last'. The king replied "the purpose of this race was not to find the fastest runner in my kingdom, but to find the most faithful servant in my kingdom. This man has clearly won the prize". And then, turning to the runner he said 'weldone! You have proven to be a good and faithful servant.'