The Chicken in a Cage
I used to believe in coincidence but the older I got, the more I understood there's nothing like coincidence, everything does happen for a reason. The people in your life right now are there for a reason, even those you will regret ever meeting.
Today I got reminded that everything happens for a reason. You see, I was suppose to skip a class today because I had this other place I had to be but for some reason, I had decided to stay back even though I knew the next class we had was basically the lecturer just reading out of his textbook, so even if I missed the class, I still won't be left behind because I had the textbook and easily could read up.
But I stayed back and when the lecturer arrived, he began his lecture. The class was meant to be for about an hour but about forty minutes in, he stopped lecturing and started talking about boys who did a lot of illegal things for money, things like fraud. What brought about the conversation was because the lecturer overheard that one of my course mate had thrown a birthday party for himself and the lecturer had jokingly said that the only reason he could afford such party was because he was a fraudster.
We all laughed about it because the lecturer has always been like that, a funny man. But suddenly, he became serious and started to talk and preach against any of us doing fraud. He told us not to envy people who got their money through fraud and seem to be doing well because no matter how long it takes, karma will always catch up with them.
Then he proceeded to tell us the story about the chicken in the cage.
He told us about how every chicken always envied the chicken in the cage because it owner always made sure to give it the best of chicken food and enough water. Everyday the other chickens would look at the chicken getting well-fed and they would all wish they too were locked in a cage, getting fed to their satisfaction instead of having to search for food themselves.
But then one day, they watched as the owner walked to the cage and they all thought the chicken was about to get fed as usual but they were shocked to see the owner kill the chicken instead. They soon realised that the only reason the chicken was getting well-fed was because the owner was trying to make it grow and ready to be eaten. The other chickens immediately became grateful for the little food they were getting themselves because no longer wanted to be locked in a cage, getting well-fed only to be killed later.
The moral of the story was that we should always work hard and be contented with what we have and what we can afford ourselves and not envy others who seem to be doing well from illegal activities like fraud because their day of reckoning is coming, the day where they get taken out of their cages and killed.
The moment the lecturer was done with his story, he continued his lecture but I no longer was paying attention because something in me told me that that was the reason why I had stayed back for that class, it wasn't for the lecture, it was for the story of the chicken in a cage.