The Kingdom of Sheep

Once upon a time, there was a valley and there was a mountain. In the valley, the kingdom of sheep was situated and on the mountain, the kingdom of wolves was situated.

In the kingdom of sheep, all the houses were white and each house was surrounded by a neat and tidy green garden full of flowers, and everyone in the kingdom loved each other and care about each other and about their kingdom.

Every morning when the sun rose announcing a new day to be born. The sheep got up, got prepared came out their homes, greeted each other with a big sincere smile,  and everyone made his way  to work and at the end of the workday -which was not long any way - every sheep came  back home to have lunch and have some rest. 

Evenings were the time where families went for walking or visiting each other. You can walk around and see little sheep playing with their neighbour counterparts, their parents sitting, talking and laughing while drinking tea and eating hot cookies.

It was a pretty peaceful kingdom in which everyone worked hard and diligently, everyone loved the other and all was one big family.

The king used to look after his people himself, he used to visit them at their homes, sit with them and discuss if there is any complaints. There were no guards around him because the kingdom was full of love. There was no police because there was no crime.

On one day, the King received a message from the kingdom of wolves, in which they admire the kingdom of sheep’s achievements, its buildings and gardens, bridges and tunnels, lakes and rivers, schools and universities, theatres and museums. The wolves said that they decided to come and take control over the kingdom and live in it. The sheep have two choices either to give in their kingdom and consent to serve the wolves all their lives or war and in this case all the sheep would be an easy and delicious meal to the wolves. And in all cases nothing would stand against the wolves and prevent them from occupying the kingdom.

The King of sheep was badly disturbed at the hearing of this message. He called on all his ministers, consultants and gathered his people and read the message to them.

Everyone got terrified and they started thinking what they were going to do and what they were going to reply:

-          If we wanted to save our lives and agreed to give in our kingdom and accepted to serve the wolves all our lives, then the wolves would destroy our beautiful kingdom and our civilization would come to an end as they don’t have any respect to beauty or our values and there would be no guarantee that the wolves would keep their word and spare our lives. Thus this choice is totally rejected. And if we chose war, they are much stronger than us and they outweigh us in numbers and no doubt that they would eat us all up in seconds. Then, what is the way out?

The sheep looked at each other then looked towards the wise old sheep that was standing there thinking in silence...

The situation was serious and disturbing...the wise old sheep asked the sheep to give him some time to think and try to find a solution.

The wise old sheep went home and spent the whole night thinking and searching the old books so he might find a way out...he read and read and read... When the morning came he finally found the answer...

He gathered all the sheep and said:

-I cannot promise you that we are not going to die but I can promise you that the sheep kingdom will not die.

I cannot promise you that we will not lose anyone to death but I can promise you that our numbers will not decrease.

The plan is as follows:  all the sheep will stand around our kingdom in like a wall – a wall of our bodies– each sheep must stick to his fellow sheep at his right and to his fellow sheep at his left. Don’t leave any gaps among you or else the wolves will get the opportunity to get into the heart of our kingdom. We are going to protect our kingdom with our bodies. Drink this magical drink which I found its recipe in our forefathers’ books – each sheep that drinks this drink if a wolf came and ate him, in the very same moment the wolf would swallow the sheep the wolf himself would turn into a sheep!

The sheep followed the instructions thoroughly and each sheep drank this magical drink and stood firm and closely to his brothers sheep.

The wolves came in the morning and were surprised to see the sheep standing like a wall around their city... they started to laugh and the loud laughter went high into the space...mocking at the sheep and how naive they were. And soon they started to rush towards the sheep and jump on them.

Each wolf ate a sheep turned into a sheep in seconds!!

“What is happening?” the wolves looked at each other while wondering in astonishment, confusion, and fear. One of the wolves said to their king

-          Let’s eat them all. If each sheep of them gets eaten up, a wolf of us is lost in return, then this should not affect us in any way as our numbers outweigh their numbers by far... let’s eat them all and finish them off.

-          (The king): Shut up! You stupid!

              Each sheep of them when gets eaten, a wolf from us will turn into a sheep. That means their     number will remain constant while our number will decrease until we all get finished off!!!

-          The king (shouting):

              All wolves stop fighting now! And make a u turn. We all are going back home immediately.

what inspired me

arabic version