Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Opiew Amwong

Once there were two brothers living together called Omot and Guur. Omot had a wife, but Guur didn’t. It was harvest time and Omot was watching over his sorghum from his watching platform, where he used to sit to scare away the birds, while Guur sat nearby and watched his own fields. Omot’s wife brought some food for both of them and put it under the platform.

When Omot looked down, he thought there was only enough food for himself, but he came down near it and he saw that it was enough for the two of them. He was tired of going up and down from the platform, so he started eating without his brother.

He thought, “I will finish all the food, and my brother will not know that my wife brought it for us.”

But he could not finish the porridge. It was too much.

So he called his brother and said, “I ate without calling you. Now eat your share.”

But he felt ashamed.

That evening, when it grew dark, they went home together, and Omot said to Guur, “I will give you money to marry a wife.”

When they arrived home, he gave his brother some money to marry a wife so that she would bring food for him, and he and his brother would always eat together.

He said, “Ask me for anything you want and I’ll give it to you.”

The moral is that if two people live together, they need to have their own property, and if someone has nothing, they need to be helped and supported. The one who has, must give to the one who has nothing.