The Dung Beetle, the Vulture and the Jinni
Once there was a scarab beetle who didn’t much think being a dung beetle was a great life. To borrow a pun, he thought it stunk. Migrating from shit to shit. Shit to crap. Crap to poop. Poop to dung and so forth. You might say it was a shitty life.
On his migration travels for piles of crap over monotonous sand dunes, he happened upon a shiny metal object sticking out of the sand. What could it be? he thought to himself. He pulled and pulled but he was just a little beetle and the heavy metal was over four times his body mass. Finally he decided (against his better judgment) to ask a nearby vulture for help. The vulture (who figured he could just eat the beetle if the metal wasn’t anything of value) swooped down and ripped the shiny metal object out of the sand. The metal was an odd-looking thing. In truth, it sort of looked like a gravy boat or a carafe and not at all like a lamp; at least that was what the beetle thought, anyway. But what do beetles know about lamps, carafes and gravy boats?
The two stood looking at each other hoping the other knew what to do.
“So now what?” the vulture asked, specifically because he had done all the work and wanted some payment (even if payment was in the form of a small snack).
“Try opening it,” the beetle insisted, trying to take attention off himself.
As the vulture tried to open it, damned if the metal object did not start to shoot green smoke and a jinni not pop out. He was sort of ghostly green and wore a turban. And a shiny green vest. Even his skin was light green.
“I am the great and powerful Ana Uji-ram and I will grant you one wish,” the jinni declared.
Since there were two of them and only one wish, the issue, of course, arose: who gets to make the wish, the vulture or the beetle? Naturally the vulture assumed since he was bigger and could eat the beetle, he should get the wish. The beetle assumed since he had found the jinni, he should get the wish. Uji-ram did not mind the argument. He had been in that gravy boat or carafe ( or whatever it was) for roughly one hundred and sixty-six years, so he was enjoying the stretch. He didn’t even mind that sticky desert heat that feels like a spider web on your skin.
“I could just eat you and be done with it,” the vulture admitted.
The beetle realized this was true , but declared he should be allowed to live, so as to offer his advice as to the nature of the wish. The vulture considered this and decided to let the dung beetle live.
Ana Uji-ram meanwhile had fashioned a hammock between two trees that seemed to mysteriously grow out of desert sand and was drinking from a coconut using a contraption to suck out the coconut water.
“Nectar of the gods?” Uji-ram offered when the vulture and the beetle approached.
They both blurted out in unison, “What should we wish for?”
The jinni folded his hands behind his head, relaxing. “That depends, what would you say you want most in the world?”
“My very own personal battlefield from which to pick the tastiest flesh,” the vulture announced.
“My very own personal zoo from which to pick the finest pile of shit,” the dung beetle announced.
“You should wish for something that will benefit you both.” Uji-ram stifled his laughter, thinking to himself they had answered way too quickly.
“How about a city?” the dung beetle suggested. “That way there will be plenty of dead and feces.”
The vulture thought about this and decided it was okay.
Charu finished, “and it was because of the dung beetle and the vulture that at this spot the city of Cairo sprang up.”
“That’s not true ,” said Mu Wong. “Didn’t the city of Cairo come about because of the Nile?”
Chim Chin chuckled and again the soldier could have sworn he heard birds chirping from several trees. “I suppose it could have been Alexandria, but it is just a parable, just a story with a purpose.”
He cleared his throat, as if letting everyone know this was the lesson to be learned. “Be careful of how your actions affect others, for a single wish can make a city Rise or Fall.”
