The Selfless Gentleman

In a home far from the inner city, surrounded by giant trees, there lived a man named Jonah.

Jonah was a farmer who had been living away from the city area for many years now. He decided that this would be the most preferable option for him, now that his family had all passed.

All of his immediate family died from a natural disaster that hit in the inner city, leaving him all alone. In order to stay away from those awful memories, he made the ultimate decision to go far from the city limits.

Jonah had been living off very little and as humble as he was, he still fed his very few farm animals. He would try to grow vegetables and sell his eggs that he got from the hens, but with the weather being hot and dry, there was very little that they laid out. Jonah could feel that his time was coming, where he would perish from this world and live with his family once again.

Until that day came, Jonah continued to feed himself and his remaining animals. Weeks had passed and Jonah was getting weaker and thinner with barely anything left for him. One day he was feeding his animals and an old man passed by out of nowhere. Jonah was shocked to see someone even show his face in the area, so he immediately rushed over to see what was up.

Once Jonah was able to get closer to the old man, he politely asked, "What is your business around this type of area?" The old man simply said, "I decided to just pass by and was wondering if I could grab a bite and some water to quench my thirst in this heat." As humble as Jonah was, he offered the very last bits of what he had to the old man. The old man shared a few stories back in his time and kept Jonah busy laughing at them. Time came around when the old man grew hungry again and asked for more food. Nice as he was, Jonah offered his animals' portion of food and gave it all to the old man.

When the old man had finished eating and telling his stories, he simply smiled at Jonah and said, "Thank you for your hospitality." Jonah walked the old man back to the area he once saw him and gave him a farewell. Once he had turned away and walked off, he looked back and saw that the old man had quickly vanished. He was still surprised that he came across another human being around his farm, because it was a miles and miles away from the city. As he situated himself back home, he realized that he would have to starve for the day knowing that he gave all his food to the old man.

It was at that very moment he walked back inside that he saw an egg. A random egg that was discolored and sat at the edge of his table. Skeptical of the situation, he observed the egg and gave it a few taps and then BOOM! The discolored egg popped and gave out a quick flash, blinding Jonah for a couple of seconds. Once his vision was clear again, he saw that there was a plethora of gold just sitting on his table that was worth a fortune. Jonah fell to his knees and looked up into the sky, shedding a few tears with a small smirk on his face.

The old man had blessed Jonah for his selfless act and decided to give him gifts of riches.

Bibliography: The Mongoose by Annie Besant

Author's Note: In the original story, The Mongoose, there was a Brahmin who had a family and famine struck at the time. He would gather as much food as he could, so that he could feed his family. The family was so skinny, they were basically skeletons. They were living off barley and powder, which was not to last very long. There was a guest who visited them and was basically treated by this humble family. They had very little for the guest to eat, but they still gave all their portions to this stranger. The father was the first to offer his portions to the guest and had nothing left of his own. Then his wife offered her portions to her husband who had given his away, but that portion was also given to the guest. In the end, the son had given his portions up as well, leaving the family with no portions left. Later, they realized they had been feeding the god Dharma, who then had a mongoose pop out of nowhere and gifted this family with gold and riches.

In my particular story, I used the character Jonah to portray a poor man who was barely living off of his goods. I decided to use one man instead of a family as they do in the original story. In this story, Jonah had lost everything, including his family and was left alone with his very few animals. I decided to go a different approach by implying that he had lost everything instead of being hit by famine. He was visited by an Old Man who was basically treated the same way as the original story. Once Jonah had nothing left, the Old Man left, but little did Jonah know what was in store for him. He got back to his home and BOOM! He was given riches for his humble acts. I got the idea to use an Old Man because that is what I imagined the god to be like in the original story.