As told by Nyan Linn Kyaw (a) Rofique (Kyauk Pan Din) 36 years old
A Rohingya senior private teacher
Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Cox’s Bazaar Bangladesh
There was once a cunning young man, who was the only son of a family in Arakan. Tragically, while the boy was still young, there was an outbreak of disease in the region that killed both of his parents, and he became an orphan.
Growing up without parents, life was not easy for the young boy. He survived mostly by begging from a nearby village, but had no one to teach him values.
One summer day, he crossed paths with an elder from a nearby village. Seeing the boy’s miserable state, the elder took pity on him and brought the boy to live with his family. The elder entrusted the tending of his herd of cows to the boy and, as a reward for his hard work, gifted him one of the cows.
Every day, the boy brought the cows to a pasture near the village, where he would tie up all the cows to trees, while leaving his own cow to freely wander and eat grass. Gradually, the rest of the cows began losing weight, while the boy’s cow grew fat and healthy.
One day the elder came to see the cows grazing. When he saw the cruel conditions in which his cows were being kept, he flew into a rage.
“How can you tend only to your own cow, while the rest of the herd suffers?” he shouted at the boy, and warned him to never do this again. The elder stormed back to the village, and informed the entire village of what he had seen.
But as time went by, it became clear to the villagers that the boy did not stop. He would tend only to his own cow while leaving the rest to wither. They became very angry, so to teach the boy a lesson they slaughtered his healthy cow and distributed the meat amongst themselves.
The boy was very upset and vowed to himself that he would exact his revenge on the villagers. As he was leaving, he requested only that they give him the cow’s skin, which the villagers did. The boy brought the skin to a sunny place and dried the cow skin.
The boy had no possessions in this world except for the cow skin. Each night he would sleep in the forest, wrapping the skin around him for warmth.
One night, as he was sleeping, a group of robbers passed by the place where he was sleeping. The boy jumped up, while still wrapped in the cow skin, which greatly startled the robbers who thought they had seen a ghost. In their fright, they dropped all of the gold that they had just stolen from a nearby village and ran away.
“What luck!” the boy thought as he scooped up all of the gold from the ground. Even though he now had some wealth, the boy plotted his revenge on the villagers who had eaten his cow.
The next day, the boy walked through the village and showed some of the glittering gold pieces to the villagers. They were so impressed. “How did you get this gold?” they asked.
“Why do you think I wanted my cow’s skin?” the boy replied. “I sold it in the market and got this gold. Cow skin is very valuable these days. You should do the same with your cows and you will become very wealthy.”
The villagers were so jealous, they immediately began slaughtering their cows for the skins. The next day, when they brought the cow skins to the market, they were shocked to learn that cow skins are worthless.
Enraged, the villagers returned to the village to confront the boy. They beat him brutally and set fire to his small shack, burning it to the ground. “Why did you trick us? Now we have no cows left!” they shouted.
Fortunately, the boy had hidden his gold deep in the forest. Again, he plotted further revenge against the villagers.
The next day the boy made quite a show of gathering up the ashes of his burned home. When he left to bring the ashes to the market, the villagers were very confused. But sure enough, the boy returned that evening with even more gold than before.
“Where did you get all of this gold?” the villagers asked.
“Didn’t you know that the ashes of a home are very valuable?” the boy replied. “I brought the ashes of my burned home to the market and sold it for this gold.”
Sure enough, the villagers were terribly jealous. Without hesitating, they burned their own houses to the ground. The next day, they gathered up the ashes. Of course, when they arrived in the market, they were shocked to learn that ashes are worthless and nobody would buy them.
The villagers were livid. They returned to the village again and savagely beat the boy. They decided to kill him, and brought him to the nearby estuary, where they tied him to a stake at low-tide, so that he would be drowned as the tide came in.
Soon, a herder with many cows passed by the boy.
“Hey!” the boy shouted. “I will make you a great deal!”
“Untie me from this stake and give me your cows, I will give you gold worth ten times what they are worth.” said the boy.
The herder did untie the boy and the boy gave him all of the gold he had stashed in the forest, in return for his entire herd of cows.
With the cows, the boy walked back into the village. The villagers were stunned. Not only was the boy alive, but he was now a wealthy cow-herder!
“Where did you get these cows?” the villagers asked.
“There are many cows floating in the estuary,” the boy replied. “If you stake yourself to the ground at low-tide, you will also certainly find many cows yourself.”
Brimming with excitement, all of the villagers raced to the estuary to do just that. When the tide was low, they fastened themselves tightly to the ground, expecting cows to come floating downstream anytime.
But as the day went on, the villagers were all quickly drowned by the tide.
Rezuwan’s note: I recorded this story while he was teaching the students at his shelter at night. This story portrays that without knowing someone’s background and intentions, no one should follow him or her and everyone should think before they act.