The Two Brothers and Their Secret Concerns

Once there lived two brothers working as farmers on each of their inherited share of lands. The younger brother is married and had started living separately with his new family, while the elder brother is still a bachelor staying and taking care of their old parents in their house nearby.

Since they live as near neighbors, the brothers still see each other every day in working on their respective neighboring farms. They eat together in a common shelter, cracked jokes with each other, shared equipments and helped each other in the farm whenever they can. It’s all still like the old times when they were both young bachelors happily helping their father in their farm lands.

Years came by, their parents were gone and the brothers are almost passed their prime. The younger brother’s family had grown in members and in needs, while the elder brother remained a lonely bachelor. Though both of them are living happily, they are still the same lowly peasants of their own lands and usually yield barely enough for their own consumption.

One night while each of them is resting on their respective abodes, each of them came to the thought of each other’s situation.

The younger brother thought to himself. “My elder brother has not gotten married at all. If he continued this way he will go into old age all alone with no wife or children taking care of him. As for me I am already married. I have my family to help me and live with me for the rest of my life. I need to do something for him.” Concerned about this he thought of an idea. “I will work harder to yield more, and then I will take 1 sack from every harvest and secretly put it into my elder brother’s supply shed. This way I can make sure that he will always have something for himself until old age.”

The elder brother on the other hand thought to himself. “My younger brother’s family is now growing and so as their needs. Yet I know he still yields the same harvest all this time. If nothing will be done, he may suffer insufficiency for his family in the future. As for me I am a bachelor and I don’t have a big family to support. My harvest will always be more than enough for me. I need to do something for him.” Concerned about this he also came up with an idea. “I will work a little harder to yield more, and then I will take 1 sack from every harvest and secretly put it into my younger brother’s supply shed.” This way I can make sure that he will never run out of supply for his family.”

Both of them did as they planned. They smile at the sight of each other every day in the farm, happy and secretly concern about each other. Each of them takes 1 sack from their every harvest and secretly delivers it into the others supply shed at night. They did this for quite a while until they finally noticed that while they are setting aside a sack for their brother they had the same number of sacks in the hut the next morning.

One night, the inevitable finally happened. They caught each other delivering sacks. They felt ashamed of their secret concerns, admitted it and finally hugged each other in tears and laughter knowing how each of them cares for each other.