Admitting your mistakes is not a sign of weakness

This is an old Arabian story of a hunchback. In the city of Basrah, a tailor and his wife were amused with a hunchback and invited him home for a meal. While the hunchback was eating, he choked on a sharp fishbone. The couple got scared as the hunchback was no longer breathing, so they wrapped him in a blanket and carried him to a doctor. To avoid attention, they told people that it was their child with smallpox. They reached the clinic, sent a message for the doctor and fled the scene in fear. As the doctor hurriedly approached the patient, he fell off the staircase, tripped and toppled the patient (hunchback) lying there.

On checking, the doctor was shocked as the hunchback was dead. He was scared and silently tossed the body into the neighbour’s land against the wall leading to the kitchen. The neighbour who was convinced that there were stray cats and dogs stealing his butter daily, suddenly found a man leaning against his kitchen wall.

Convinced that he was the thief, the man struck a blow. The hunchback fell down. Soon enough the neighbour realised that the hunchback was dead, because of his blow. He did exactly what the doctor had done, towed the hunchback against another wall of the King’s broker.

The broker who saw someone leaning against his wall assumed it was the same thief who earlier stole his turban. So, he struck a blow. Now, the hunchback fell down onto the ground, dead. A watchman saw this event and soon reported the matter to the governor.

The matter was brought to the Governor’s Court and the broker was handed a death sentence in front of the entire city. As he was readied for execution, the doctor’s neighbour came running and admitted that it was he who killed the hunchback. When the neighbour was about to be executed, the doctor came and admitted his crime.

Surprised, the Governor, ordered the doctor to be executed, when the couple came forward and pleaded that the doctor should not be executed as it was they who were the reason for the hunchback’s death and narrated the whole story of the fishbone. A barber who was silently witnessing all this came forward to request an examination of the body, which he was allowed. He drew some herbs from his pocket and rubbed them over and using his pincers, drew the fishbone and patted such that the hunchback sneezed and woke up wide awake.

Confession is a sign of strength and boldness: Mistakes do happen, things do go wrong. Admitting one’s mistakes is not a sign of weakness, instead it shows that you are not the one to be bowed down by the past but are ready to set things straight and start afresh.

Life is too precious to be weighed down by circumstances: It is easy to blame circumstances for everything that happens in life, but if you take courage to take ownership of your action and the outcomes, you probably would find yourself more in control.

Stand up for others as much as you would stand up for yourself: All of us look out for people who are fair to us and do the right things for us. So do others. Hope that you look at the pain hidden beneath them and be fair to them.