This is an interesting story that I was told by my grandmother when I was only 13 years. We loved sitting by the fire side eating groundnuts and listening to her favorite stories.

This night she was trying to tell us how important Old men in the village .In other words she wanted us to appreciate and respect them.

There lived a very wicked chief. Nobody liked him, because of his wickedness. He was wicked to every one. The men and women. He decided to pretend to be popular with all the young men who lived in his country. When he won their trust they all liked him.

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One day he called these young men whom he had gained trust in them and told them this. “My dear friends, can’t you see? 'they all were very eager to hear what their chief was thinking about.” Kill all the all of them. Everybody should kill his father.”

“ Therefore all those who had old fathers alive, brought them to be killed. Each one of them went and brought his father to be killed. They killed all of the old men except one.

He was the father of a man who refused and said no.” why should the chief kill the old men and why should I send my father to be killed?”

He decided to dig a big hole and hide his father there. He covered the place with wood and soil leaving just a small opening for him to breath and enough space to let in food. By this time all the other men had killed all their fathers.

When the chief had made sure that all the old men were killed he was still not satisfied with the young men. He gave them a cow to slaughter and bring him the best part of it .If they don’t then they had to be punished.

They all thought that this was an each task. The young men went and slaughtered the cows but wondered which part of the meat of the cow was the best. They were all worried.

They cut the liver and sent to the chief. He asked whether it was the best part of the meat. They all said yes. They added part of the bile. He said that it was not the best part of the meat. He asked them to go and find out quickly. The people were more than worried.

Mean while the man who never killed his father visited him regularly taking him food to eat secretly. One day he asked his son what was happening in the village. He told him how they were all suffering. He explained that after killing the old wise men , the chief gave them a cow to slaughter and take to him the best part of the meat. He wanted the sweetest and the bitterest part of the meat. If they failed to bring that they would all be killed.

The old man laughed and wondered why that was what was making him worried. He asked his son if he knew that bitterest and the sweetest part of the meat which he knew nothing about.’” the sweetest and the bitterest part is the tongue. He told his son to cut the tongue and send it to the chief and say that it is the sweetest and bitterest part of the meat.

The man hurried home finding people worried and undecided about what to do .if nothing had happened they were thinking of throwing the meat away and run away from home. When he arrived he asked them to cut the tongue of the cow and sent it to the chief.

They cut the tongue for him and took it to the wicked chief’s palace. He went threw it down and said,” Chief see the sweetest and the bitterest part of the meat is the tongue.”

The chief sat down quietly and finally said.” you did not kill your father. Speak the truth. You have not killed your father.”

He said that it was the truth. He did not kill his father. When all the other young men were killing their fathers; I went and hid mine.”

He congratulated him for being a son of a wise man . The sweetest and the bitterest part of the meat is the tongue.

As for all these young men you are all fools. Why would someone send his father to be killed? But if you are interested in finding the sweetest and the bitterest part of the meat, find the tongue.

It was because of your tongue that you will have an enemy and it is also because of your tongue that you will not have a friend.

This story teaches us a big lesson. We meet this wicked chief who pretends to be friendly to win the confidence of the young men in the community.

All the men except one do as they were instructed. At the end we find that the man who was crafty saves the rest of the men.