IN a small town named Sachpur, there lived two brothers, Akbar and Ather. Akbar was elder and a goatherd while Ather was just a lazybones who was either found sleeping under a tree or playing with the ducks and hens they h but mostly he would roam around town and tease the kids.

Both the brothers were opposite to each other not only in activities but also in nature. For instance, Akbar was serious, caring and intelligent while, Ather was idle, greedy and deceitful. Akbar was popular for his credibility and honesty, but Ather had a very bad reputation.

Throughout the year, Akbar took great care of his goats and made them healthy and fit to sell them for the occasion of Eidul Azha and almost everyone in the town bought goats from Akbar.

This year also, Akbar earned well by selling all his healthy goats a week before Eid so he was very happy and told Ather that he would buy him whatever he wanted. But Ather felt jealous of his brother’s success and earnings so he came up with a cunning plan to earn money but through unfair means.

The people of Sachpur were very excited about the approaching festival, everyone was shopping and having fun with their sacrificial animals day and night. But one morning, many families were shocked to find that their goats which they had bought from Akbar were missing.

Since the number of missing goats was too much, people were quite sure that there was a goat thief in their town. The next day, again some goats went missing. Now everyone was deeply concerned so they decided to look for their missing goats, but even after searching around the town for hours, they found nothing. Then they decided to wait until midnight and see if the thief would come again.

During all this time, Akbar was curious and surprised to see Ather in an unusual happy mood. He also saw him counting and hiding a good amount of money. He questioned Ather several times, but Ather declined to give any answer.

That night once again the thief started for his target, he climbed the wall of a house and jumped inside. In the corner of the house, four goats were tied to the tree; the thief tiptoed towards the goats, untied them and dragged them. Just then, one of the goats began to bleat and then the others also started doing so.

He tried to run away with the goats as quickly as he could, but the bleating was so loud in the night that the owner of the house and his son, Atif, woke up. They looked out from their window and saw someone pulling the goats.

They shouted, “Thief, thief!”

Their cries were heard by the neighbours who were already vigilant and they came out from their houses. The thief got confused as lights started to turn on in the neighbouring houses. Leaving the goats, he hurried to the wall but he staggered and fell on the ground! Just then Atif and his father got hold of him. The thief tried to hide his face but since he was totally trapped, he couldn’t hide his identity anymore.

People were shocked to find that he was none other than Ather, Akbar’s younger brother. Seeing such a great crowd Ather started to cry and apologised. He confessed that he was the one stealing the goats and selling them in some other town.

The news came as a great shock to Akbar who was left embarrassed but people consoled him. So he decided to punish Ather and asked him to go back to the town he had sold the goats in, return the money to the people and bring back the goats to their real owners; only then would Akbar and the town people will accept his apology.

Ather did as he was told and felt really ashamed of his wrong doings. He also promised his brother and town people that he will be good from now on and will help brother Akbar with goats.