From Saudi Arabia

The price of Pride

A Beduin once had business in the cattle market of a town. He took his young som with him, but in the confusion of the place he lost track of his boy and the child was stolen.

The father hired a crier to shout through the streets that a reward of one thousand piasters was offered for the return of the child. Although the man who held the boy heard the crier, greed had opened his belly and he hoped to earn an even larger sum. So he waited and said nothing.

On the following day the crier was sent through the streets again. But this time the sum he offered was five hundred piasters, not a thousand. The kidnapper still held out. To his surprise, on the third day the crier offered a mere one hundred piasters. He hurried to return the boy and collect his reward. Curious, he asked the father why the sum of money had dwindled from day to day.

The father said, "On the first day my son was angry and refused to eat you food; is that not so?" "Yes," agreed the kidnapper. "On the second day he took a little, and on the last he asked for bread of his own accord," said the father. It had been so, the kidnapper agreed. "Well," said the father, "as I judge it, that first day my son was as unblemished as refined gold. Like a man of honor, he refused to break bread with his captor. To bring hem back with his pride untarnished, I was ready to pay one thousand piasters. On the second day, when hunger made him forget the conduct of a nobleman, he accepted food at your table, and I offered five hundred piasters for him. But when he had been reduced to begging humbly for food, his return was worth but one hundred piasters to me".