Anthony W. Pahl : To Give Up is to Die

It seems that there was a man who was in a great deal of financial trouble. He was a no-hoper who squandered his money, gambled and drank to excess and mentally abused his friends and family. His creditors decided that because he was in such default on payment of his house, car and credit card loans, they would bury him alive and very slowly, but as a gesture of “goodwill”, would cease the burial if he was able to make up the payments that were overdue or if he could get out of the hole.
Of course, the fact that he was being buried gave him no possible way to find or earn the money to make up the payments, and the hole was too deep and wide for him to be able to climb out by himself. But he had estranged so many people who would normally help him that they decided to ignore him and left him to his own devices. The creditors couldn’t give a damn because they were extracting their pound of flesh and so the man became resolved to his fate. Every day, each of the creditors shovelled in a scoop of soil into the hole and the poor man sat in utter dejection while the pile of dirt grew higher up his body as the hole was gradually filled in.

A child spotted the proceedings and wandered over to the hole. He looked at the man and asked the usual childish questions like, “Why are you in there?”. “What are you doing?”, “Why are you crying?”, “Why don’t you get out?”

The man told the little boy to leave him alone so that he could die alone without having anybody to gloat over his fate.

The next day, the little boy returned and told the man that his daddy thought the man was silly. He said, “My Daddy asked why you don’t climb on top of the sand they throw on you; you will eventually be able to climb out of the hole.”

Amazed, the man said that he would do that and lo and behold, in a few days he was able to climb out. He was a changed man. No longer was he negative about his problems but began to look for positive alternatives. He lived to become a respected man in his community and was always willing to provide good and practical advice to others who were in trouble. Soon people were seeking him out for assistance and he never failed them. He died many years later as a respected and much loved member of the community.

A strange twist to the story is that the never saw the little boy after that second day, but he had a feeling that he knew where and by whom the boy was sent.

©Anthony W. Pahl
07 May 2003

This parable is based on a story I read about a farmer who lost his donkey down a well.

Page created: Wednesday, 13 August 2003