The Poor Woman In the Neighborhood
Copyright © Anike Foundation
There was a poor woman in the neighborhood that had a daughter. The poor woman was a native soap maker. Making native soap required empty palm bunches and some other materials. Each day, the poor woman and her only daughter gathered the materials to make soap. When the soap was ready, people would come from the neighboring villages to buy it.
One day, the poor woman and her daughter prepared soap and waited for buyers, but nobody came. They waited all day into to the late evening, but still, no one came to buy soap. Meanwhile, they had no food to eat at home. At some point, the poor woman’s little daughter could not bear the hunger anymore. Her cry forced her mother to go to the rich woman in the neighborhood to beg for food.
The rich woman in the neighborhood and her seven daughters booed the poor woman and drove her away from their house. The poor woman went outside the gate with her daughter and began to beg and cry but the rich woman and her daughters did not care; rather, they went out and drove her further away. One of the rich woman’s daughters sniped at her: “Do you think we would ever need anything from you?”
The poor woman and her little daughter went home without any food. They felt as if they would be hungry forever. As they were approaching their house, they saw somebody standing in the road. At first, they did not recognize the person, but when they got closer … behold! It was the poor woman’s sister-in-law. She came to visit and also brought a lot of food with her. The poor woman quickly opened the door, took her in and told her about their ordeal. Her visitor presented the food she brought for her and the poor woman quickly cooked. They ate and slept.
The herbalist told them to pay him some money; in addition, he asked them to bring an empty palm bunch. At that time, palm bunch was very scarce. The only place it could be found was the poor woman’s house. Because of what they had done to the poor woman, they were afraid to go to her house and ask for help. Finally, to save their mother’s life they summoned enough courage to go to the poor woman’s house. When they got to her house, the poor woman asked for half of the rich woman’s wealth before she would give out one empty palm bunch for the preparation of the concoction that would cure their mother’s ailment.
The rich woman’s children pleaded for leniency, but the poor woman did not yield. She insisted on her demand. The rich woman’s children invited other people in the neighborhood to come and help them to beg the poor woman to accept one quarter of their mother’s wealth in exchange for an empty palm bunch.
They came and pleaded, but the woman refused. She told the people what the rich woman and her daughters did to her and her daughter when they had no food to eat. The people sided with the poor woman and blamed the rich woman and her daughter.
Meanwhile, the rich woman’s sickness became so serious that her daughters had no other option than to give the poor woman half of their mother’s wealth to save their mother’s life.
The moral of this story is that we should not take our good fortunes in life for granted. Conditions could change: the needy of today could become the rich of tomorrow and vice versa. When we are blessed, we should share our blessings with those in need.