What's Your True Character? It Will Find You Out

What sort of person are you? What sort of person are you really? It's no secret that we often think more of ourselves than others do. It's also no secret that the person our closest friends and family see is more often the real person we are than the person we believe ourselves to be. But who are we really and how do we find out? There is a wonderful tale from the Arabian Nights called "The Everlasting Shoes" that illustrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that not only will your true character find you out and make itself known to everyone else, but it will also sooner or later be your making...or your undoing.

There was once a man in Cairo who was as famous for his wealth as he was for his miserliness. His shoes were the biggest example of his meanness, having been patched and repaired so much over the 20 years he had owned them that they became a joke throughout the city. One day Abu Kassim went to take his bath and, as is customary, left his old shoes outside the bath. While he was inside, a rich merchant came. He ordered the keeper of the bath to remove the offending his shoes from his sight and left his own, fine clogs there. When Abu Kassim came out, he saw the new shoes and believed in his greedy mind that Allah had rewarded him with new shoes. So he put them on and went home. When the merchant came out and found his shoes missing, but could still smell the shoes of Abu Kassim, he knew what had happened. With his servants, he went to Abu Kassim's house. He demanded back his shoes and had Abu Kassim arrested. Abu Kassim had to pay a large bribe to keep the affair out of the courts.

Abu Kassim blamed his troubles on his shoes and decided it was best if they go. So he went to the wall of his house and threw the shoes over it. On the other side, an elderly woman was walking by and the shoes struck her on the head, killing her. Abu Kassim was dragged into court accused of murder and had to pay a large ransom to appease the family of the killed woman. Time and again Abu Kassim tried to rid himself of his shoes, each time they returned to him and cost him more money until at last his great fortune was gone. Finally, hysterical, Abu Kassim brought his shoes to court and, in front of witnesses, accused his shoes of malice and conspiracy and there disowned them. He ran penniless from the court screaming and muttering curses upon the entire tribe of Shoes.

This is, of course, a light-hearted story, but the messages in the story are serious indeed. As many Arabic stories illustrate, generosity is a virtue and miserliness is a great sin. The other lesson is that sooner or later, your character will "out" you. Are you generous? Are you jealous? Are you ambitious? Are you helpful? Whatever you are, make sure your actions in ALL of your life reflect it. Otherwise, it may be your shoes that bring about your doom. :-)

Have a question, problem, conundrum, or just a nagging issue? Send it to me and I'll find a solution in a fairy tale!