Old Sufi Story

Dedication to Swine Flue Panic

One little town had only two streets. A wise man lived in one of the streets. One day, people noticed him walking through the town with his eyes full of tears. Somebody died on the neighboring street, people thought, because our wise man wouldn’t cry without reason. Everything is fine on our street, so what happened on the other street, people thought. Rumors reached the other street, and people on that street decided that if somebody died, it must be on the first street. “We don’t have any problem”, they thought. Rumors were growing and becoming more and more scary. People were talking about deadly disease that took the lives of everybody on the next street. Very soon, both streets were empty. People left their houses and ran away, trying to save their lives from unknown misfortune. Very soon, two new bigger towns appeared next to the empty town. The wise man moved to one of them because he didn’t want to live alone. The ruins of the abandoned town still exist between the new towns. From generation to generation, people tell the story about how the wise man predicted a catastrophe and citizens of that town barely survived from unknown disease by running away. You’re probably wondering why the wise man was crying that day. He just was cutting onions.

Story retold by Dr. Yuri Belopolsky.