In a small village, there was an enormously rich man who liked to eat delicious food. His meals always had many delicious dishes. He raised a lot of pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese. When he needed to eat, he could kill them for food.
One day, his friend visited him. He told his servant to make a great banquet to entertain his friend. After they finished, the owner guided his friend around his courtyard. At that time, a couple of white geese passed by. He showed them to his friend and asked, "Do you see that couple of geese? They look healthy and chubby. Tomorrow, I can kill one to entertain you."The geese could understand human language. They were worried and sad. They had lived very happy lives, but now one of them had to die. How could they be emotionless? In the evening, they came back to their stable. The geese couple repeated the words that the owner had promised to his friend. "Maybe he will kill one of us," the gander said to the female goose. "Let me die. You take care of our children." But the female goose said no to the gander. "You have to live because you are stronger than me. You can take care of our children. I am a weak woman. I can't take care of our children. So let me die." They argued almost all night about who would receive death. Finally, they decided, "We'll lie down at the stable door. Whichever goose the chef picks, that one will die."
Accidentally, the room of the owner's friend was close to the geese's pen. He could understand animal language. He didn't sleep a wink all night because he heard the whole story from the couple. They debated and consulted together about the love between them. Each of them wanted to die and each would sacrifice his life to save the other. The guest didn't show the least bit of emotion, but when he heard the faithfulness of their love, the guest thought to himself, "It is all because of me that they have to separate from their very peaceful life. All at once, they have to separate from their love. Why shouldn't I be sad?" he asked himself.
Then he thought, "If I refuse the repast, I won't have to choose, and the geese will live." He decided to keep that plan and tell the owner at dawn. In the morning, the guest said to the owner, "I think that we don't need to kill a goose because I have tried goose meat before. It is very bad." So the owner said to the chef, "We don't need to kill the goose because my friend doesn't like to eat goose meat."
The geese didn't die. All the invented words helped to save them. It wasn't that the guest hated goose meat but because the guest felt pity for their faithfulness. They lived side by side forever. It didn't matter whether their life was peaceful or perilous; they couldn't separate from one another.by Anh Tran
