The Fable Of The Black Sheep And The Value Of Honesty
The fable of the black sheep is a story written by Italo Calvino. Like many of his wonderful tales, this one is full of imagination. It is a story that hides a deep and disconcerting message, which leaves no one indifferent.
The fable of the black sheep tells us that in an isolated place on Earth, there was a village where everyone, without exception, was a thief. All the inhabitants went out late at night. They carried a lantern and a master key. With these tools, they would rob their neighbor’s house.
The next day they all went home. Of course, their house was robbed. It didn’t seem abnormal to them at all. In the end, they all knew they were living among thieves and couldn’t expect anything else from others. Despite everything, this remote village lived in perfect harmony. It was a chain. They were stealing from each other and that way they all had something.
At the trade level, things were bought and sold through the medium of the scam. Whether they acquired or provided goods, the result was the same: people scammed each other. The government itself could do nothing but deceive its citizens. And these, in turn, continually defrauded the state. The locals felt happy to live in this place.
The fable of the black sheep and the honest man
In the fable of the black sheep, we find a point where something breaks the normality. In this case, it is the honest man who begins to turn everything upside down. He suddenly arrived in this village and, instead of going out and robbing his neighbor’s house in the middle of the night, he stayed at home, read a book and smoked his pipe.
The thieves arrived in front of this house and saw the light on, so they decided not to approach. Some residents started to get hungry. If they couldn’t fly, the chain broke and some had nothing left. So they decided to speak to the honest man and asked him to reconsider his attitude. He was causing harm to others. If he didn’t want to be a thief, fine, but at least let the others rob him.
The honest man understood the situation. From that moment on he went out every night and went near the river. He was leaving his house so that others would feel confident and come in and rob it. However, he did not want to become a thief. As a result, within a week, his house was completely empty.
Breaking the balance
According to the fable of the black sheep, the attitude of the honest man began to upset the whole balance of this village. Since he refused to steal, there was always a resident who found his house intact in the early hours of the morning. Some therefore began to accumulate more than they had to.
At the same time, those who went to rob the honest man’s house found it empty. So they couldn’t eat until the following night, when they were going to steal from another house. The rich and the poor therefore began to appear. Some were accumulating property while others were still in deficit.
Quickly, those who had accumulated a lot of possessions decided that they could no longer be stolen. But they did not want to stop stealing themselves because they would risk becoming impoverished. So they made the choice to pay those who had nothing to steal for them. They created contracts, salaries and bonuses to make it very clear.
The end of the fable of the black sheep
With these changes, many residents were confused. They didn’t know what to do. To remind them of the nature of their role, prisons were created, as well as the profession of policeman. Those who had accumulated a lot of goods would at the same time be protected.
Despite everything, the flight did not stop. They all continued to fly, but the rules of the game were different now. Some did not work and paid other people to steal for them. But the rich couldn’t be robbed because if they did, the burglar would go straight to jail.
No one understood why things had changed so much. But they all had to adapt, simply because they had to go on living. What happened to the honest man? He simply died of hunger. He was the only person who refused to steal from others and the only one that no one understood. And so ends the fable of the black sheep. Any resemblance to reality is not the result of coincidence.
Our thoughts Honesty is a value we all need to cultivate every day to become better people.
