Friendship

A folk tale

Translated by: Fateh Kassab

© 2011 by THE BIRD

The story begins when two friends were walking in the desert. During their trip, the two friends argued and one of them slapped the other on the face.

The man who was slapped on his face hurt, but did not say a word, and wrote those words in the sand:

"Today my best friend hit me on my face."

The two friends continued their walk until they found an oasis so they decided to rest and wash.

The man who was slapped on his face fell in the quicksand and started drowning, but his friend caught his hand and pulled him out from the quicksand.

Having survived he wrote on a piece of stone

:" Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who hit his friend asked him: "Why in the first time when I hit you, you wrote in the sand, and now, when I saved you, you wrote on the rock?

His friend replied:

"When a friend hurts us, we have to write what he did in the sand where the winds of forgiveness carries it away when it blows , but when he makes us favors , we must write what he did to us on the rock where nothing can remove it or carry it away."

```