The Sword and the Traveller
Once upon a time, at the edge of an old forest where cool waters flowed, lived a humble wanderer. This wise man, who had paced the paths for years, dearly loved to listen to the whispers of nature. On a mild autumn afternoon, when golden leaves adorned the roads, he saw a sharp sword gleaming in the very middle of the path. This cold steel, drawn from its scabbard, glittered like a dangerous flame under the last rays of the setting sun. When the wanderer noticed that there was no one around, he slowly approached the object with curiosity. Before taking this magnificent weapon, lying alone on the ground, into his hand, he began to examine it carefully. Just then, an echoing and ice-cold voice rose from deep within the sword.
"Are you looking for my master, who left me here and went away, o traveler?" said the sword. The wanderer, trying to hide his astonishment, asked, "Who dropped you on this path, to whom do you belong?" The sword, polishing the silver engravings on its body, sighed with a mysterious air that held both its sorrow and its pride. "A lonely warrior who had succumbed to his own anger dropped me here," it answered. "But the truth is that a single person lost me, while I have brought pain to hundreds of people." The wanderer sank into a deep silence before the depth of these dark words uttered by the weapon. He shuddered inside as he thought of how anger and destruction blind the human mind.
The wanderer at once made his decision, in order to prevent this dangerous object from causing further disaster. Lifting the sword from the ground with reverence and great care, he walked toward the deep precipice at the side of the road. He hurled this sharp steel, the instrument of anger, resolutely toward the bottom of the dark valley. The destruction of the steel as it struck the rocks left a soothing echo in the depths of the forest. The peace of the path, cleansed of danger, spread once more through the whole valley with the sweet whisper of the wind. A person who acts in anger cannot realize that he carries his own disaster within him. Sharp vinegar harms its own jar.