Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Rev. Stephen Pal

Once a husband and wife were travelling in a far off desert and they found a blind man lying on the road.

“Let’s take him with us," the husband said.

But the wife said, “No, we don’t know him. Let’s go on.”

But the husband was saying all the time, “No, we must take him.”

So they took the blind man with them and went on until they came to a town.

The blind man heard the cry of the people and the cars and he said, “What is this village?”

They said, “It is the town.”

“It’s a town? OK, let’s go.”

When they reached the town the blind man started shouting and crying.

People ran up to him and said, “What is the problem?”

“This man,” said the blind man, “Has taken my wife, because of my blindness.”

The people believed him.

“It’s true,” they said.

The husband said, “No, she’s not the blind man’s wife. She’s my wife.”

So they went to the police station to be judged. When they reached the police station, the policemen separated them and put them in different rooms, the wife in one, the husband in another and the blind man in another.

During the night-time the people came and listened outside each room.

They heard the blind man say, “Oh, I’m clever to shout and cry as I did. If I didn’t tell all these lies I’d never get anything. They don’t realise that it’s all nonsense.”

Then the people went outside the woman’s hut and they heard her say, “I told my husband something like this would happen. But he wouldn’t listen to me and insisted on taking the blind man with us. Now we’re suffering for it.”

Then they listened outside the husband’s room.

“This is my fault, because I didn’t take my wife’s advice. It’s all my fault.”

So the people called them together and accused the blind man and put him in prison, and the man and his wife were freed.