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Story Time: Trapped between the devil and the deep sea
Once there was a boy named Ali. He was very clever but was ill-tempered and a little jealous. He had two best friends at school: Ahmad and Abdullah. All three liked to hang around with each other at school and keep in touch on the telephone at home.
Before the summer vacations, they were talking of where they would go to spend their vacations. Ahmad said that he was going to Islamabad. Abdullah said that he would go to Lahore. Ali was not going anywhere but, out of jealousy he lied to them that he was going to London.
Ali spent the whole vacation thinking about what he would say to his friends after the school reopened. He knew much about London, so he built stories and descriptions in his mind about London that he would tell his friends, if they asked.
When the school reopened, Ahmad, Abdullah and Ali told each other about how they spent their vacations. Ahmad and Abdullah did not know that Ali was lying to them. Everyday Abdullah and Ahmad asked Ali more and more about London and Ali built mountains of lies everyday. For weeks, these lies kept their lives.
One day, their class teacher read out a story to them in which a mischievous boy lies about everything he senses and experiences, he lied even to his family and friends. And at the end, he receives a fatal blow to his self-esteem as everyone get to know that he was continually lying to them.
During recess, Abdullah and Ahmad were talking about the story when Ali joined them. Ali was very worried that what would happen if the end of the story would come true for him.
Abdullah: Ali, did you like the story?
Ali: Yeah...
Ahmad: It was great!
Abdullah: I feel pity for that boy of what consequences he had to face for lying to his family and friends.
Ahmad: It is good that we don’t lie to each other.
Ali became very sad and anxious. When he reached home, he seriously thought about the solution to this problem. He was now trapped between the devil and the deep sea that he can either carry on lying or be forsaken by his friends if he revealed the truth. He decided not to say anything about his vacations and not to reveal the truth.
The next day, even when his friends emphasized, he neither told them a lie nor a word of truth. But after several days of remaining quiet, Ali got fed-up. One day he told the truth when his friends intensely and consistently approached him and forced him to talk about his vacations. He couldn’t take it any more so he told his friends the truth. He pleaded and beseeched them for forgiveness but as he feared, his friends deserted him.
For some days, Ali felt very lonely and incomplete without his best friends but then his friends forgave him for his mistakes and he never lied again.
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