The Most Foolish Traveler In The World

Once upon a time there was this foolish traveler who had gone on a journey.

Why was he foolish? Well because he was fooled by everyone he'd met.

Everywhere he went people made up all kinds of sad stories to tell him,

and the traveler fell for every one of them.

Pretty soon his money, his clothes, even his shoes have been cheated away from him,

but the foolish traveler was always glad to help

and he always told people the same thing. He said, "I wish you happiness."

But by this point, the traveler was completely naked and with nothing left to cover himself

he decided to leave the main road and travel through the dense forest where no one can see him.

But soon he was discovered by the goblins that lived in the woods.

The goblins wanted to eat the traveler's body!

So they begged and they pleaded and they used kind words to try and trick him.

Of course, the traveler was fooled.

First he let the goblins eat one of his legs, then an arm, then more and more.

After it was over all the traveler had left was his head.

He'd even given his eyes away to the last of the goblins.

And as the last goblin was eating the traveler's eyes, he turned and said,

"Thank you, traveler. In return I leave you this present."

All the goblin left was this piece of paper with the word "fool" written on it.

The traveler couldn't see it, he didn't know what it was.

Even so, tears began to float out of his face.

"Thank you," he said, "This is the first present anyone's ever given me, I'm so happy! I'm so happy, thank you."

Even without his eyes, he cried and he cried great tears of joy.

Then, the traveler died, the smile still on his face.

And that's the end of the story.

Right after we heard that yesterday, all of the other kids in the class started making fun of the traveler.

But while they did that, I closed my eyes and thought about him a little longer.

I thought about how he'd given everything away, until all he had left was his head.

And how at the end, he still cried for joy as he said, "Thank you."

And then I realized, I feel so sorry for him.

See; Loss, hardship, things like that, you can't only focus on them.

The traveler didn't. He never thought about his own troubles at all.

I imagine it does sound foolish to some people, but not to me.

I don't think he's foolish at all.

Even though other people probably think he was being tricked, I don't think he was.

I think he did exactly what he wanted to do.

I think, more than anything, he just wanted to make other people happy.

What about you? What do you think?

Really, is that foolish?

When you close your eyes and think about it, is that what it is?