Chicken with Broth and Potatoes

[AbuHossam]

Once upon a time, there was a poor family. They weren’t the poorest, yet they ate the same thing every night: Chicken with broth and potatoes. In their neighborhood, they lived as a very rich family.

One day, the son and daughter of the poor family yelled out, “We are tired of this chicken with broth and potatoes every day.We’re not going to eat dinner until we eat something else. We’re going to check the neighborhood to see if they have anything better than chicken and potatoes.”

The father of the house said, “Wife, today they won’t eat for being ungrateful.” Thinking about what to do, the parents saw two other children beyond the window, looking in, and decided to invite them in to eat dinner. The children were so happy and very thankful. Seeing this, the son and daughter said, “We don’t care.”

And they went from the house to search for anything better than chicken with broth and potatoes.

They went next door. However, the next-door family only had potatoes, no broth, no chicken. They tried the house next to that, but they only had one bean, which had to be divided into four, and that certainly wasn’t enough for six. Then they tried three doors ahead, but the children there had empty plates with no food to eat. They just had a glass of water before they went to bed. The boy and girl said to themselves, “Let’s go home and eat like kings. We have chicken with broth and potatoes.”

When they arrived home, they could smell the chicken with broth and potatoes. Looking in the window, they could see the two kids their parents had invited in eat the last piece of chicken and potato. So, they went inside the house to their rooms, crying with heavy tears.

That same night, the father and mother had bought some ice cream and cake, which their kids hadn’t seen. If they had been grateful for the chicken broth and potatoes from the very beginning, they could have had even better, but they were not grateful, so they had none. Let us not be ungrateful, for this leads us to miss out on many blessings.