Uncle Akram owned a large herd of goats. All the goats were obedient except one goat, that had blue eyes. Because of her blue eyes, all the goats used to call her ‘Bluey.’ Bluey was disobedient as well as ungrateful. She had many complaints against Uncle Akram.

One day while grazing, she said to Browney, a goat who was completely brown, “I don’t like our master, he mistreats us, feeds us the same dry grass every time and takes us to the same place for grazing.”

Browney tried to reason with her, “I know, but you should be thankful to our master. Stop complaining about food, I think you should appreciate that he is providing us food every day and gives us the opportunity to roam around. Many owners don’t care at all about their goats.”

But it didn’t matter to Bluey, she got even more enraged. “Telling you something is like shedding tears in front of a wall. Keep your suggestions to yourself. I will find a solution on my own,” said Bluey and walked away.

One day, as usual when uncle Akram took the goats out to graze, Bluey seemed to be disinterested in grazing — she was thinking about escaping. Suddenly, her eyes caught the sight of a path leading to the town. Without giving a second thought, she ran in that direction. When the other goats noticed Bluey running away, they called her, but Bluey ignored them and kept running. Uncle Akram also tried to stop her, but she was soon out of sight. Disheartened, he led all the goats back home.

All the goats missed Bluey because they were all friends. Days passed into months, things came to normal. One day, while all of the goats were heading home after grazing, Browney saw Bluey at a distance, she was weak and had lost all the shine of her white fur. She was performing tricks in front of a crowd and her owner was collecting money.

Browney was disheartened to see her friend in such a state. When the show ended, Bluey saw Browney and her other goat friends grazing at a distance, she felt embarrassed, but gathered the courage and went close to them while her owner was busy collecting money.

“My friend, I missed you a lot, you are so weak,” Browney said while her eyes brimmed with tears.

“My well-wisher! Disobedience to anyone, whether to God or a kind person, always gets one punished. So, I had to get the punishment,” she said regretfully.

“What happened to you after you ran away from us?” asked Browney.

“As soon as I turned towards the town, a man lured me with various types of grass and took me to his home. He confined me in a small room; he used to give me dry and rotten grass every alternate day, and then he forced me to stand on a small box and perform tricks. If I refused, he hit me with a stick. Now, he earns money from my skills by showing them to people. Even then, my owner only feeds me once a day. I wish I had shown gratitude earlier; my situation wouldn’t be like this.

“My friend, please tell everyone to be grateful instead of being greedy, and never try to deceive their owners,” said Bluey, as she was trudged back by her cruel master.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 15th, 2024