There was once a farmer named Zoros. He earned his living by plowing the land, waiting for the harvest season to reap the grain and feed himself and his wife year-in and year-out. One day he was going through a field when he came across a snake. He was carrying a stick and was about to kill it. The snake begged Zoros to spare its life. The snake cried for mercy, saying, “Don’t kill me. I will do anything you want me to do.” Zoros said, “I know it is not impossible for snakes to do miracles. Can you bring me a diamond from that mountain over there?” The snake agreed.
It went up the mountain and brought and handed over the diamond to Zoros. In return, Zoros spared the snake’s life and went home with joy to share his happiness with his wife. When he got back home, he could not find his wife because she had gone to see her friend in another village. So Zoros kept the diamond inside an empty earthen jar for safety. Soon, his wife came and he told her the whole story. She could not believe him until she could see the diamond inside the jar. She looked down. Indeed, it lay there like an egg, but the jar was filled with brilliance never seen in her life. She wanted to touch it, to take it out and enjoy its beauty.
She tried it on her ears, on her finger, and on her neck and wondered where and when she will wear it. She could not find a mirror handy and thought of buying one the next day when she goes to the countryside market. Both husband and wife took the diamond from the jar a thousand times and a thousand times they placed it gently inside the jar.
Even though they had a box where they kept clothes, they thought that it would be lost and preferred the jar instead. The whole night they dreamt what to do with the diamond and did not enjoy a peaceful and happy night. They, however, decided not to share their secret with anyone.
They agreed to sell the diamond in the morning. But who will buy a diamond from them and worst of all from a poor family that did not store enough grain to withstand drought? When the sun rose, they were ready to go to the market. Zoros got up and looked into the jar. He saw that the diamond had grown tenfold and could not come out from the jar easily.
He told his wife that it was impossible to take out the diamond from the jar. The only way they could do that was to break the jar. This is a jar, and the only one in the house, with which Zoros’s wife fetched water every week from a stream half-aday’s walk from her home. If they break the jar, they will die of thirst. She said it was foolish on the part of Zoros to place the diamond in the jar in the first place. She began to nag her husband. “In fact, you’re the cause of all this trouble.
Who told you to bring the diamond to our house? Go back to the snake and return the diamond to it and let it do whatever it liked with it.” But again can that be possible without breaking the jar? Zoros wondered! His wife could not give him any idea how he could do that. Zoros went to the snake alone and once again he threatened to kill it if it did not do what he wanted. But this time, instead of being afraid, it was furious and spoke with a voice as strong as thunder.
It was so angry that it was ready to throw out its venom on the farmer’s face. The snake said, “If you come here another time, I’ll kill you!” Zoros, who never feared for his life, became afraid just like any ordinary person as if he was out to tame a lion.
Snakes have their own ways of appearing and disappearing in the grass. If the Almighty had not protected him, Zoros would have stepped on the snake as he was walking through the grass. He would have been stung by the snake and would have died. Zoros went home sad and deeply disturbed. He took out a miniature book kept in his pocket and gave thanks to God. When he arrived at his home, he met his wife at the doorstep.
He noticed that she was filled with joy. In the meantime, the diamond had turned to its normal size. She had taken it out from the jar just as anyone could take out an egg from a pot and sold it to a merchant well-known for collecting valuable objects for a lot of money. Once again Zoros and his wife began to think deeply how they were going to spend their money. They wanted advice , but wondered whether it was the best thing to do under such circumstances when it was better to keep themselves look poor at least for the safety of their lives.
Zoros thought of going to the snake for advice, but he said to himself that he had better stay away from danger because of the warning he had been given. So, the money stayed for years and years before they did anything to it. Of course, every week they went to the market and bought grain. They did not starve even though there was drought in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, their neighbours became suspicious. They asked how Zoros and his wife could manage so long when others were deeply affected and even fled from their houses. They saw Zoros daily and they judged that he was as strong as before. They looked at his wife and her beauty did not diminish a bit. Her face did not change and she was as beautiful as she had ever been.
The neighbours wondered there must be something that kept them happy and never complain about the drought. In the middle of the night when Zoros and his wife were sleeping, two men known for their banditry broke into the house and were happy to discover much money in the jar where once the diamond was kept. Since it is not difficult to carry a large amount of money, they fled with it before Zoros and his wife could wake up.
Zoros and his wife thought of reporting about the theft to the police like ordinary people do when they are robbed of their belongings. They said that they police would not keep asking as to how they came to own such a big amount of money in the first place. So, they kept quiet and pretended as if they had not lost a cent.
Thus, their poverty continued. Still, they were happy, though they had no children, and not much to worry about except their daily bread and, of course, one of the gentlest animal in the world – a cow. Within months, the cow gave birth to a calf. Milk began to flow out from her like rain from the clouds. Indeed, the rainy season came and rain began to fall as if it never did before. The dry land was logged with water.
Zoros took advantage of the water and planted a variety of seeds that seemed to sprout from the earth. In no time, the face of the surrounding area changed. Zoros and his wife worked on the field hoping that they would certainly regain the money they had lost with God’s help and the help of the only cow whose supply of milk increased daily thanks to the green grass it was eating in abundance daily. The harvest season took the place of the rainy season.
Zoros observed that the land had been very generous and he had gathered grain from the field that his grain stores were not capable of storing. He, therefore, built more grain stores and kept the crops for sale finally taking them to the nearby grain market.
Zoros sold plenty of grain so much so that the money he collected was no less than the money he lost as a result of the robbery. This time he did not care whether or not the money was stolen, for the people in the surrounding area were equally as happy as he was since the land had been generous to them just as it was to Zoros. For many years, Zoros and his wife enjoyed the bounty of nature. In the meantime, they were blessed with several children who grew up and went abroad to learn science and the arts. Their heads of cattle multiplied; The milk they obtained daily brought them more and more money.
In addition, milk that was stored at their home was turned into butter and cheese and sold to villagers easily without being taken to the market place. As far as the bees are concerned, they worked so hard on each and every hive Zoros and his wife owned and produced honey in great supply that was stored in honey jars and made available to any person who had a taste for honey.
One day, Zoros died. His wife had loved him so much that she could not bear the sorrow for a long time and she died also. The snake heard the story not long after and began to ask itself where in the world the diamond had gone. It searched every place by going to the house of the dead farmer disturbing the children every night and said to itself that it would remain restless until it found what it wanted. It went on searching and searching until it died.
No one knows for sure where the diamond had concealed itself never to be discovered by any man on earth. Nevertheless, the story-teller refused to end the story and found it in a one-inch by one-inch prayer book that Zoros had kept all his life thanking God for sparing his life from a snake-bite when he was a child. Copyright © 2015 (Partially adopted from a similar story told in Addis Guide Sept. 2007Issue No. 27).
The Ethiopian Herald March 17, 2019
BY BERHANU TIBEBU ZEWOLDE
