Clumsy Prince

 Written by: Abdullah Fazli

Once upon a time, there was a big kingdom. The king of that kingdom had two sons, Khalid and Tawab. Khalid was the oldest son of the king.

One day the king assigned his sons to find the alchemy plant and promised that anyone who finds the alchemy plant, he would assign him as his successor.

Both princes left the castle and went toward the mountain with their servants for finding the alchemy plant.

Khalid thought as he is the older son of the king, he is deserved for that post and he was trying to face Tawab with trouble.

Tawab also wanted to find the alchemy first and win the position. Tawab’s servant had taken food with them too. After a few hours, Tawab felt hungry and wanted his servant to give him some food. The servant searched the bag on the horse's back but could not find any food.

Khalid had fed his horse with Tawab’s food and thus he had thought that Khalid might give up finding alchemy if he fells hungry but Khalid did not care about it.

Two days passed but they did not find the alchemy. Khalid’s servant was hungry but there was nothing to eat.

Khalid said to his servant that he is hungry too but he would not mind hunger otherwise Tawab might win the position but the servant could not satisfy his hunger. Meanwhile, they heard the bleats of a sheep on the mountainside.

Khalid and his servant saw that a shepherd was grazing sheep. They went near him to ask him for bread but when the shepherd saw them, he ran away and left his bread on a stone. When Khalid saw the bread, he said that the shepherd is a dirty boy and he would not eat his leftover bread.

Tawab also saw the bread. He and his servant ate it and they thanked Allah to find them food.

Tawab and his servant saw the alchemy plants on the top of the mountain and they climbed and cut the plants. When they were descending from the mountain, they saw Khalid and his servants were sitting on the mountainside and they could not talk and walk due to hunger. Tawab took them to castle.

The next day, the king held a big party at the castle and invited many people to it. He decided to announce the winner of the contest. All participants thought that Khalid would be the king’s successor. The king talked about the importance of the contest. He said that he launched this contest between his sons to find out which one has the characteristics of a good king. Then he asked Khalid if he found the alchemy plant.

 Khalid replied that he had found the alchemy plants before Tawab but as he was arrogant and did not eat the leftover food, he was not able to climb on the top of the mountain to cut the alchemy plants but Tawab ate that food and he succeeded to climb on the top of the mountain.

The king announced Tawab his successor and people clapped for him.