MIND YOUR TONGUE
As a King and his
Queen were sitting in their palace one day, a fisherman who was selling fresh
fish was brought in front of them. The King decided to buy a fish and gave the
fisherman 4000 dirham for it.
The fisherman was
overjoyed. He thanked the King and left.
The Queen turned
to her husband in anger and scolded him for paying so much for a fish. The King
said that the fish was purchased and that there was nothing that could be done
about it.
However, the
Queen was adamant and insisted that the fisherman be brought back.
"We will ask
the fisherman about the gender of the fish," she said. "If he answers
that it is female, we will say that we wanted a male fish and if his response
is that it is male, we will say that we wanted a female fish! Either way, we will
be able to return the fish and have our money back."
So the poor
fisherman was called back and was asked the question. The fisherman sensing
some danger, replied, "The fish is neither male or female. It is
neutral."
The King was
impressed by the ingenuity of the man and before the Queen could say anything
further, he ordered another 4000 dirham to be paid to him. The fisherman
thanked the King again but as he was about to leave with the heavy bag of
money, one of the coins fell onto the floor. The fisherman immediately bent
down to look for the coin. The Queen was already upset that the fisherman had
been given 8000 dirham.
"Look how
miserly this man is!" the Queen exclaimed. "One coin has fallen out
of his bag full of money and he searches for it instead of leaving it for some
other poor servant to find."
The man heard
this remark and said, "O Queen, it is not out of miserliness that I search
for the coin but rather because it had the picture of the generous King on it.
I would not tolerate anyone to cause dishonour to the King by treading on the
coin."
The King was so
happy with this response that he immediately called for another 4000 dirham to
be given to the fisherman. When the Queen saw all this, she thought it was
better to hold her tongue and let the man go with the 12000 dirham before the
King decided to increase the amount again.
~ Speech is an Art. If one knows what, when and how to talk then such a
person will be successful in life. Your tongue is the translator of your
intellect. In other words, a person's intellect and wisdom is recognized
through his or her speech. ~ 
