A little leak can sink a great ship

By PAUL KARIUKI

There once lived two orphan brothers, Mugo the hunter and Muturi the farmer. The two lived in the same compound, albeit in different huts. 

Every daybreak, Mugo would go deep into the jungle to hunt while his brother toiled on his farm at the edge of the forest. For their effort, they never lacked food and other utilities after trading their produce.

Despite their obvious work ethic, the two brothers were very different in temperament. While Muturi was more collected, Mugo was an impetuous hot head who never stopped to listen to others. He had killed numerous dangerous beasts after all.

One morning, Muturi caught his bother as he was inspecting his hunting gear. He had a proposal.

“Say Mugo, can you put on hold your hunting for a day?” Muturi asked.

“Why?” asked a curious Mugo.

“I’d like to help you repair that gaping hole on your wall,” said Muturi.

Mugo laughed out aloud. “Why should a little hole on the wall be a bother to you? Besides I can do it myself another day.”

Muturi was upbeat, however, and insisted pointing to the greying skies.

“I say, let’s repair it today as the rains will soon be upon us. If we postpone repairing, we may be forced to make a new wall!” 

Mugo wouldn’t hearken to counsel choosing to instead saunter off into forest to inspect his traps. A bewildered Muturi had no choice, but to repair his wall without his brother’s hand.

As fate would have it, later that evening, as each of the brothers were in their huts, it started raining. Light showers at first before a deluge came tumbling down accompanied by blowing winds, flashing lightning and rumbling thunder.  The rains beat hard on Mugo’s wall as he slept and widened the previously small hole. As the pouring continued so did the hole continue widened that in no time, the entire house was flooded with rainwater.

Craaaash! The sound of Mugo’s falling hut was heard miles away.  It was so bad that Mugo made it out by a whisker before he ran to his brother’s hut for cover.

“I asked you earlier in the day to repair and strengthen your wall, but you wouldn’t listen” Muturi admonished a shaken Mugo. “We will now have to build you a new hut”. From that day on, our courageous hunter learnt his lesson and began heeding counsel.