Once upon a time, in an African village. The king proposed that a hall should be built in the village. The hall was to mainly serve the purpose of meetings and subsequently weddings or any other program as long as the hall is available.
The reasons behind this was because the only village that had a town hall was their neighbouring village which was far away from them. If anyone had anything important to do, they had to travel with everyone celebrating with them to that other village coupled with the cost of renting the hall and other designs that would be done.
Another reason was because of times when the people would choose to have any event in the open space because of the lack of a hall. The event ends up been cut short because of rain. So many events have been stopped or cancelled because of rain.
These reasons made the king propose that a hall should be built in the village for the purpose of town meetings, special programs and even weddings.
The king asked the villagers to contribute money for the building of the hall. Every family was given an amount to pay. People started paying the money but there were some particular set of people that refused o pay. Some said they wouldn't pay because they do not think building the hall will be necessary and useful to them. Some didn't pay because they were always hiding under the umbrella of no money. Some didn't pay because they believed they were being cheated and that not all the money that is gathered will be used to build the hall.
The king being a wise king didn't force anyone of them to pay rather he left them alone. The hall was later built. They had their town meeting in the hall. And in that town meeting, the king thanked those that made it possible for the hall to be built. He further said that every family that contributed to the building of the hall will be licensed to use to the hall for free anytime they have any event to hold as long as the hall had not been booked earlier. He now faced the families that refused to contribute, he told them that they would pay anytime they needed to use the hall, and also he added that they would charged as if they were foreigners. Those families laughed at the judgement until when one of them needed to use that hall for his child's wedding ceremony because rain had fallen and everywhere had been messed by flood and muddy ground.
He went to meet the king to ask for the price to rent the hall. He was surprised when he heard the price because he never imagined that it would be that expensive. He pleaded with the king to reduce the price. Unfortunately the king was not ready to listen to his pleas. The king even further told him to be grateful that the hall was not already booked by another villager, if not, his request would not have been considered.
He went home unhappy because the king didn't even listen to his request. He took time to think on whether he would pay the money requested. When he later decided that he would pay because the event cannot be postponed. He picked up the money and headed to the king's palace. On getting there, he brought out the money, but he was strck with another bad news. What was the bad news? While he went home to think about paying or not paying. Another villager that was among those that contributed to the building of the hall had come to request to use the hall on the same day with that man. The king granted the second villager's request already.
Therefore, the man couldn't use the hall for his daughter's wedding. They had to have the wedding in a very shabby way which is not even good to imagine.
There are so many lessons to learn from this story. What have you learnt from this story? Share with me in the comments section.
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This is a wonderful story. In acts of community service a person should never be indignant. It is for the good of all and all round benefit. That money he went to pick up to pay would have been easily given if he had paid earlier on.