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1     Once upon a time in an Iraqi village, there was a shepherd who was very stingy. He was considered strange because of how he treated his workers.  The shepherd asked each one to sign a contract saying that if the worker got angry with him, then the worker would become his slave. On the other hand, if the slave was able to get him angry, then all his property and money would belong to the worker.  This shepherd knew how to get people upset and angry. It was more than a hobby; it was a profession.

2     On the other side of the same village, there were two good brothers, and one of them got broke and needed a job badly. This was the younger brother, and his name was Khaled. He consulted his older brother Hamad about working with the strange shepherd as he was the only one who could give him a job immediately. Hamad warned his brother and advised him not to work for the shepherd.

3     Hamad told Khaled, “If you want to work with him you have to be very calm and control your nerves, as the shepherd will try his best to provoke you and to make you lose your temper. If this happens, you are going to become his slave forever.” Khaled promised his brother to be as patient as he could be, and he went to the shepherd and signed the contract.

4     The first day the shepherd offered Khaled bread and dates as his food for the whole day. He asked Khaled to walk the sheep out to the grassy fields and come back in the evening. The second day the shepherd offered only two dates as his food for the entire day.

5     Khaled was upset and the Shepard noticed that, and asked him, “Are you angry?”

6     Khaled said, “No, I am not. This won’t be enough to eat, but it is ok.” The third day Khaled was told by the Shepherd that there was no food as he couldn’t afford it. Khaled was upset, but still not angry.

7     The shepherd asked him “Are you angry?”

8     Khaled said, “No.”

9     At the end of the day, Khaled was starving, and he tried to drink milk from the goats and the sheep, but this wasn’t enough for him. He went to the kitchen and asked the servants to give him food, but they had been forbidden to give it to him. He decided to go to the kitchen in the middle of the night and grab anything he could find, but the shepherd expected this and was waiting for him there.

10    Khaled started to beg him, and the shepherd said, “No way. As I told you before, you are not entitled to anything.” At that moment Khaled lost his temper, and he shouted his anger, and in this way, he became a slave.

11    A few weeks later the other brother, Hamad, decided to check on Khaled’s situation. He was told by the shepherd’s servants that Khaled had become a salve. At that moment, Hamad started thinking about a plan to rescue his brother and to teach the strange shepherd how to behave with people.

12    The next day he went there and signed a contract to work under the same conditions. The first day the shepherd gave him only bread with dates, and Hamad was pretending to be satisfied and happy. The second day he gave him only dates, and again Hamad was thankful to him. But, when he was out with the sheep, he ate one of sheep, and he brought the leftovers to the shepherd. The shepherd was upset, but he tried to hide his anger and told him to consult with him next time. The third day Hamad went out again with the herd of sheep and came back at the end of the day with only half of them. The shepherd was so upset this time and was about to lose his temper, but he didn’t.

13    Hamad told him, “I ate only one and gave the rest to some of my friends who were really thankful to you.”

14    The next day the shepherd told him not to walk out with the sheep; rather he should take care of the shepherd’s garden. On the fourth day Hamad starting taking out every tree that the Shepherd liked and destroyed the beauty of his garden. When he saw what Hamad had done to him, he was about to lose his temper again but again managed to control himself.

15    The shepherd told him, “You don’t have to do anything. Just stay inside the palace and walk around.” Hamad was playing it smart with him and did what he was told. As he was walking in the garden, he saw the shepherd’s eight-year-old son. He started playing with him, and then he decided to hang him on a tree, and this is what he did. The shepherd heard his son shouting and crying, so he came running to see what was going on. When he saw his son hanging on a tree by his shirt, and Hamad standing there, this time he lost his temper and started shouting at Hamad.

16    Then Hamad asked him, “Are you angry or something?”

17    He said, “Yes, I am very angry. How could you do that?”

18    At that point, the shepherd lost the deal and Hamad started dancing and singing, as he had won this time by getting the shepherd to his boiling point.

19    Hamad became the owner of everything that belonged to the shepherd, and the shepherd and his family became slaves. Hamad was able to rescue his brother and to bring justice back to the area. He also gave the shepherd the choice either to stay as a slave or to leave the village. The shepherd left the village and Hamad freed all the people who used to work with him, and gave his money to poor people.

20    The message of this story is to not exploit the poor. It’s also important to control your emotions and use your intelligence to save yourself and others. I heard this story when I called my friend who is living in Iraq, and I asked for her help on my story. Her mother told me this story, and I started to write.