THE GREEDY BROTHERS AND THEIR WISE BROTHER

Chapter one Very long time ago in a far away land, lived a man called Adebe and his wife called Reti. Adebe and his wife once lived in a little village. They were born there, they grew up there and got married there. A few years after their marriage, a great famine affected the village. For reasons unknown to the villagers, their soil suddenly refused to produce food. All efforts to make the soil fertile again was unsuccessful. Hunger began to ravage the village, so people began to look for alternatives in other villages. Adebe and his family were among those affected by the famine. His wife had given birth to two sons and watching their children go through hunger was what Adebe and his wife couldn't bear. One day, Adebe told his wife to gather the little properties they had because they would be leaving the village. His wife asked him where they would be going to and he told her he had nowhere in mind but he believed that if they left their village, they might be lucky enough to get help somewhere. uco yertz Very early the next day, he and his family set out. They walked for hours, moving from place to place. At a point, their children became very hungry and they fed them with the little food they had but Adebe and his wife stayed without food because they had nothing to eat. w After two days of walking, they got to a very large space. The space had many trees. They looked at the trees and saw different fruits on them. They looked round but didn't see any human presence. The place looked isolated They wondered why nos one stayed there. They plucked as many fruits as they could and ate hungrily. After eating to their satisfaction, they decided to lie under one of the trees and rest because they had been walking for days. They rested for so many hours and after resting, Adebe told his wife that he didn't think they should continue walking. He told her that since they had gotten fruits to eat at that place and so far, no one had come to disturb them, it was better they stayed there. His wife bought. his idea and they stayed. yed Later that day, Adebe decided to walk round the area. As he did, he came to a very large and clean flowing river. Many plants that produced food were at the shore of the river. Adebe was very happy. He quickly walked to the river and drank to his satisfaction then he ran to get his wife and children and they also drank and they all had a good bath. * Adebe picked some dried sticks and built a little thatched house and from then, they began to live there. Everyday, Adebe explored the area and gradually, he and his family mastered the whole environment and in that place, they not only lived comfortably, they even prospered because the soil was very fertile. Chapter two That was how Adebe and his family became the owners of the place. They even named the place Adebele. The land of Adebele was indeed very fruitful and from being hungry people, Adebe and his family became very prosperous. In that land, Adebe's wife conceived and gave birth to two other sons. They all ived happily and peacefully till Adebe and his wife grew very old and before they died, they gathered their children and advised them on how to live in unity. They taught them all they needed to do in order to continue prospering. When Adebe and his wife died, their children buried them there in the land of Adebele. After some years, some foreign merchants who were on tour came to Adebe Seeing how fruitful the trees are plants were and how clean the river was, they told Abede's children that they would like to take over the land of Adebele from them because they wanted to build some fruit juice factories there. "We would pay you huge sums of money and give you just a document sign.". The foreign merchants osaid to Adebe's children. "What is the document about?" Adebe's second child, Oki asked the foreign merchants. "It is just a document of change of ownership. You take our money and give us this land." They replied. "It’s our land, our parents discovered this place and made it our own. We can't give it to you." Oki said. "Listen, you need our money more than you need this land. If you take our money, we would teach you how you would relocate to the big city and become as rich as we are." The foreign merchants said, trying to convince them. Oki insisted that they wouldn't sell off their inheritance but hearing the huge sum of money the foreign merchants promised to give them, Oja, Adebe's first child who had always been lazy and greedy, got carried away. He began to fantasize about living lavishly in the big city with the money that the foreign merchants would pay them. He quickly accepted the offer and convinced his other siblings to accept but Oki refused. After days of arguments, the foreign merchants then advised Oja to divide the land into four so that he and his other siblings can sell theirs while Oki kept his own and lived there. Without thinking twice, Oja quickly divided the area into four unequal parts, making sure Oki got the smallest part but Oki didn't complain. He took the part his elder brother gave him. He even begged his siblings not to sell theirs but they refused. The foreign merchants gave Oja and his two brothers bags of money and gave them a document of change of ownership to sign. Then they showed them the way to the big city and fully occupied their land. Chapter three Oja and his brothers got to the big city with their bags of money in anticipation of a better life. They went to the bank where the foreign merchants directed them to change the foreign currency into their local currency and after each of them changed the bag of money he had, they all discovered that the money the foreign merchants paid them was useless to them. The money couldn't even feed them for a month. They got very angry and disappointed. They found their way back to the land of Adebele and to their surprise, the foreign merchants had erected a very big fruit juice industry there. They also noticed that the foreign merchants were harvesting their fruits and using them to produce the fruit juice which they exported to their own country. When they accosted the foreign merchants and demanded for their land, the foreign merchants reminded them that they had sold the place to them. They told the foreign merchants that they deceived them by promising them huge sums of foreign currency but the foreign merchants told them that they paid them exactly what they promised to and that it was their fault because they foolishly did not ask them the equivalent of the foreign currency compared to their local currency. Oja and his brothers begged the foreign merchants to help them but the foreign merchants told them that the only way they could help them was by employing them as labourers in their industry. Oja and his brothers went to Oki but Oki told them he didn't have anywhere to accommodate them. He told them that they made their decision to sell off their own portion of land so they should live with the consequences of their decision. Oja and his brothers became labourers of the foreign merchants who maltreated them so much. They lived in regret for being foolish and greedy.