The Two Friends and the Stranger with the Coat

 In a faraway land lived two friends. They had been friends since their childhood and wanted to be so all the time.

Another man came to the village and saw the friendship of the two men. The man who came to the village wanted to know whether the friendship of the two men was strong enough. So he did a very simple thing.

* * * *

The very next day the two men saw a stranger walk across the field. 

The stranger shouted and drew a lot of attention to himself. That way both the friends looked up from their work. 

The friends admired the coat that the stranger wore.

* * * *

In the evening when the two friends met each other they talked about it.

"The stranger was wearing such a lovely red coat" Said the first friend.

The other friend was confused. "I wanted to talk to you about it, but it was not a red coat, it was a blue coat!"

The first friend shook his head hurriedly and was confused himself. "How could you say that? it was a red coat!"

"You did not see it properly!"

And so the two friends now were angry with each other and soon they started fighting. It reached a stage that they both insulted each other and called each other names in the middle of the road.

* * * *

It was at this time that the two friends saw the stranger on the road again.

The stranger looked at the two friends fighting each other and he laughed. 

He pulled out the coat from his bag and showed it to the two friends. "You fools! You fools! You fought without the facts."

The two friends were flabbergasted. The coat in the strangers hand was half red and half blue. 

"You both fought because neither of you were right. You just saw things from your own point of view and refuse to understand anything from the other man's side. You do not deserve to be friends."

Folk stories from Africa